Who's Who in the Obama Administration (cont'd)

We’re profiling the twelve KAs in the Obama Administration. This is part 2 of 3. Read part 1 here.

Concensus Builder
Chris Kang

In his parents, immigrants who worked in special education in Indiana public schools, Chris Kang had in-house role models of public service while growing up. He took their example to heart and today works in the East Wing of the White House trying to persuade lawmakers to support the policies of the Obama administration.

Kang, one of the president’s 10 special assistants for legislative affairs, came to the job with plenty of experience. He worked for Illinois Democratic Senator Richard Durbin for seven years, including his final four years running Senate floor operations for the Democratic Whip. Kang told Duke Law, his alma mater’s publication, that he learned about the power of the government to help or limit people from the experiences of his father, who lost his eyesight as a teenager and had to fight discriminatory laws in South Korea. His parents would become advocates for the disabled.

Kang told Duke Law that a key component of his job involves building relationships with members of the U.S. Senate and, whether they agree or not on policy, “trying to find concensus as often as possible.” One would guess, these days, in this highly partisan, “Tea Party” climate, Kang’s job is proving extra challenging.

People Mover
Betsy Kim

When a college-aged Betsy Kim came to Washington, D.C., for an internship with then-U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, she noticed all these young people—many not much older than she—working very long hours for practically nothing. Her reaction: she wanted in. Many years later, Kim finds herself steeped in the political scene as a key figure known for her activism in the Democratic Party and now working as White House Liaison at the Department of Labor.

Her primary role is to manage the personnel process for political appointees coming into the Labor Department, she says, and works closely with the White House in the process. “I spend a lot of time on the phone or walking the halls of my agency touching base with people,” Kim described. “My job involves a lot of information gathering and follow-up, and I find that personal contact is the best way to get that done.”

After graduating from Pomona College in California, Kim served as an assistant for then-U.S. Representative Daniel Akaka of Hawaii. A lawyer by profession, she has also volunteered for several elections, stretching back to President Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996 and most recently, for Obama’s campaign. As former Deputy Director of the American Majority Partnership at the Democratic National Commitee, Kim developed strategies to increase Asian Pacific American political participation and is pleased to see that more APA votes are turning blue in every presidential election since 1992. An estimated 62 percent voted for Obama.

“There was a level of passion for this particular candidate and his message that I’d never seen before,” she said, noting the large number of Asian Pacific Americans who worked for his campaign and also the many, including three Cabinet members, serving in his administration.

The Liaison
Gary Lee

Like so may others, Gary Lee knew he wanted to work for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, even before the then-U.S. senator announced his candidacy. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Lee put his minor in college—political organizing in the digital age—to good use, producing blogs, video and other social networking tools out of Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters.

Today, he’s using all the skills he learned from college and campaigning as a White House legislative assistant, serving as a liaison for the president to members of Congress. “The most challenging part is the pace at which we’re going,” Lee, 24, told USC News, last summer. “As much as it is an honor to work at the White House, it’s also a sacrifice. There’s no balance between your work and your life. It’s all work and that’s your life.” But that wasn’t a complaint. Lee added that he loves what he does.

The Guardian
Rexon Ryu

As an assistant to National Security Adviser Jim Jones, Rexon Ryu is one of a handful of directors working on nonproliferation issues at the National Security Council, with a specific focus on Iran and Syria. Ryu formerly worked as a foreign policy adviser to retired U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), as an analyst at the State Department, and a special assistant to former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Hagel told Foreign Policy last January that his former staffer has “a good global assessment of reality and policy … and can talk simply, straightly, directly.”