ICRW Board Member Jennifer Klein to Co-Chair White House Gender Policy Council
19 January 2021
Media Contact
Jennifer Klein, Chief Strategy and Policy Officer at TIME’S UP and ICRW Board Member, is being appointed co-Chair by the incoming Biden Administration to the newly forming White House Gender Policy Council.
The Council, chaired also by Julissa Reynoso – the incoming Chief of Staff for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and former U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay – is intended to integrate gender considerations in government policies focused on everything ranging from economics and healthcare to racial justice and foreign policy.
“We are delighted with the appointment of gender champion, Jen Klein, to the White House Gender Policy Council,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. “Over the past six years, I’ve valued opportunities to collaborate with Jen as a Board member. I find her to be a seasoned professional with real depth of expertise on gender and equity issues. She is this wonderful mix of strategy and compassion, and will work tirelessly to advance an agenda that mandates gender as front and center in both domestic and foreign policy decisions.”
The Gender Policy Council will serve an important, independent role in the incoming Biden Administration. The Council will include the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council.
“ICRW is thrilled that this new Council will have participation from the other White House power councils, very much in line with our recommendation to establish a Feminist Policy Council at the White House, directly reporting to the President, with participation from these bodies and with a foreign and domestic policy mandate” said ICRW’s Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy Lyric Thompson. “Given her deep expertise in gender and experience with both domestic and foreign policy, Jen is a wonderful choice to co-lead it. We hope that, as the Council is stood up, it will also include participation from the Cabinet, will be well-resourced and conduct its work in close consultation with civil society—perhaps as a standing advisory council. The appointment of the co-Chairs is a great first step, and we look forward to what we hope will be an inclusive process.”
The news of the Gender Policy Council and now appointment of its co-Chairs is a welcome development in the advancement of gender issues and equality, and responds to recommendations by ICRW and a coalition of more than 80 organizations pushing for an elevation of the White House Council as part of a U.S. feminist foreign policy.
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Anchored in the principle of human dignity, ICRW advances gender equity, social inclusion and shared prosperity.