Greek-American Jen Psaki named White House Press Secretary

Greek-American political advisor Jen Psaki has been named press secretary in US President-elect Joe Biden’s new all-female White House communications team.

Jen Psaki

Psaki held several senior positions during former President Barack Obama’s administration including White House communications director from 2015 to 2017.

She also served as the spokesperson for the State Department under former Secretary of State John Kerry and as deputy White House communications director. She was also the deputy White House press secretary during the financial crisis.

Psaki is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and lives in Virginia with her husband and two children.

“Honored to work again for @JoeBiden, a man I worked on behalf of during the Obama-Biden Admin as he helped lead economic recovery, rebuilt our relationships with partners (turns out good practice) and injected empathy and humanity into nearly every meeting I sat in,” Psaki tweeted.

On his part, Biden said "communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a President, and this team will be entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of connecting the American people to the White House."

Other senior members of the communications team include Kate Bedingfield as White House communications director, Pili Tobar as deputy White House communications director, Elizabeth Alexander as communications director for first lady Jill Biden, Ashley Etienne as Harris’s communications director, Karine Jean-Pierre as principal deputy press secretary and Symone Sanders as Harris’s senior adviser and chief spokesperson.

It will be the first time all senior staff on a White House communications team are women.

US presidential candidate Joe Biden presents ‘vision for Greece’

Last month, Biden also called on Turkey to reverse the decision on Hagia Sophia, and stated that the US (more specifically the Trump administration) must press Turkey to refrain from any further provocative actions in the region against Greece.

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked Biden for his comments: “It is very important that just yesterday the former Vice President of the United States and presidential candidate, Joe Biden, joined his voice with the global wave of protests for its transformation into a mosque. He called on Turkey, in an explicit manner, to restore its character as a monument to all humanity.”