Three Turkish women to serve under Biden administration

ISTANBUL

Three Turkish-American women will serve in the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who took office on Jan. 20.

Didem Nişancı, former global head of public policy for Bloomberg LP, became the chief of staff for Janet Yellen, the new treasury secretary.

Nişancı worked for four years as chief of staff at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Obama administration, where among other duties she served as chief White House liaison.

She also served as staff director of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment, including in the wake of the 2007-2009 global financial crisis.

The second Turkish-American to work under the Biden administration is Özge Güzelsu, a lawyer who was appointed as the deputy chief legal advisor of the Department of Defense.

Özge Güzelsu, who previously worked as a lawyer in California and later served on the Senate Military Committee, graduated from both Harvard and Stanford, leading universities in the world.

Naz Durakoğlu became the first Turkish-American to be appointed to the U.S. Department of State at the highest level in its history.

She has been elected as the senior deputy undersecretary for congressional relations at the Department of State.

Durakoğlu served as senior adviser to Victoria Nuland, deputy secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs in the Obama administration between 2015 and 2017.