Three Indian Americans appointed as White House fellows

The White House on Monday named 19 young emerging leaders as its fellows for 2021-22, three of whom are Indian Americans.The prestigious White House Fellowship programme embeds professionals from diverse backgrounds for a year of working as a full-time, paid fellow for White House staff, cabinet secretaries and other senior government officials.Indian Americans who made it to the list are Joy Basu and Sunny Patel from California; and Aakash Shah from New Jersey. The President's Commission on White House Fellows described it as the most diverse class in the history of the programme, which was created in 1964 by the then President Lyndon B Johnson. Joy Basu from San Francisco has been placed at the White House Gender Policy Council.

Placed at the Department of Homeland Security, Sunny Patel is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and public health physician with interests in building equitable health systems that serve children and families.  Patel has spearheaded health interventions for vulnerable populations in the United States and abroad, including in India, Thailand, and Dominican Republic. He has spent the past decade working with refugee populations and has conducted forensic psychological examinations for asylum seekers with NYU and Physicians for Human Rights. Joy Basu from San Francisco has been placed at the White House Gender Policy Council.