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President-elect Joe Biden names members of his White House senior staff

WILMINGTON, Del. (NewsNation Now) — President-elect Joe Biden has announced nine members joining his White House senior staff, many of whom worked as close aides on his presidential campaign.

FILE – In this Dec. 28, 2011 file photo, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon is shown in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Biden confirmed that former campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, the first woman to lead a winning Democratic presidential bid, will serve as a deputy chief of staff, according to a statement released by the president-elect’s transition team.


O’Malley Dillon has worked on seven presidential campaigns, including former President Barack Obama’s 2012 bid for reelection.

Campaign co-chair Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond and campaign adviser Steve Ricchetti will play senior roles in the new administration. Richmond will leave his Louisiana congressional seat to fill the White House job.

Richmond will serve as Biden’s senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Richmond has represented Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011.

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 17: Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) delivers remarks during a House Judiciary Committee markup of H.R. 7120, the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020,” on Capitol Hill on June 17, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Ricchetti was tapped for a role as counselor to the president.

He had joined the Obama-Biden administration in 2009, serving as the former vice president’s chief of staff.

The president-elect also announced that Mike Donilon, a longtime Biden confidant, will serve as a senior advisor.

Others named include Dana Remus, the campaign’s current general counsel, and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who was one of Biden’s deputy campaign managers.

Remus will serve as a counselor to the president, and Chavez Rodriguez will serve as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Annie Tomasini, who is currently Biden’s traveling chief of staff, will serve as the director of Oval Office operations.

Anthony Bernal will serve as a senior adviser to Jill Biden, after he was her chief of staff on the campaign, and Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a former Obama Ambassador to Uruguay, as her chief of staff.

(Photo provided by the Biden-Harris Transition Team)

“I am proud to announce additional members of my senior team who will help us build back better than before,” Biden wrote in a statement on the announcement. “America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation.”

The Biden-Harris transition team provided full bios of the newly named White House senior staff on its website.