Sonal Shah Named to Homeland Security Advisory Council

WASHINGTON, DC – US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas ha announced the appointment of 33 new members to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which includes Indian American Sonal Shah.

The new members of the Secretary’s Advisory Council include former Cabinet Secretaries from both Democratic and Republican administrations; chief executive officers from the technology, energy, transportation, financial, food and consumer products, and venture capital industries; executive leaders of national law enforcement organizations; Presidents and CEOs of non-profit organizations dedicated to human rights, government accountability, and community security and empowerment; leaders of nonpartisan policy institutes; and other leading professionals.

Shah has served as the National Policy Director for Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s run in the 2020 presidential election.

In early 2021, she was left out from being appointed in the Biden administration after more than a dozen Indian-American organizations raised concerns about her political affiliations in India. Biden later appointed Shah as a commissioner to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders:

She is the Executive Vice President, Worldwide Network Operations, United Way Worldwide, and Founding President, The Asian American Foundation, the largest philanthropic effort to serve the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

Shah was born in Mumbai and moved to the US in 1972 at the age of 4, She grew up in Houston, TX and graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics from Duke University.