Maya Harris

Maya Lakshmi Harris (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair of the 2020 presidential campaign of her sister, Kamala Harris. Harris was born in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois, and was educated at Bishop O'Dowd High School, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. She was involved with PolicyLink, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for American Progress. Early life and education Maya Lakshmi Harris was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and Montreal, Quebec. She is a daughter of Shyamala Gopalan Harris (1938–2009), a breast cancer researcher who emigrated from Chennai (formerly Madras), India in 1960; and Donald Harris, a Jamaican-born Stanford University economics professor, now emeritus. Her maternal grandfather, P. V. Gopalan was a career civil servant with federal Government of India. She and her older sister, Kamala, were raised with beliefs from Baptist and Hindu faiths. At 17, she gave birth to her only child, Meena Harris. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. That year, she enrolled in Stanford Law School. While at Stanford, she was an editor of the Stanford Law Review, and active with the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, serving as Co-Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Clinic and co-chair of the Student Steering Committee. She received her J.D. degree in 1992 "with distinction." Career