Louisa Terrell (born August 17, 1969) is an American lawyer and former government official. From 2021 to 2023, Terrell served as director of the

White House Office of Legislative Affairs The White House Director of Legislative Affairs, officially the Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, is part of the senior staff of the president of the United States. The officeholder is responsible for dev ...

under President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

. Prior to this, Terrell served in a variety of government and private sector positions, including as a member of Biden's

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

staff and as a public policy director at

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Early life and education

Terrell was born in Delaware on August 17, 1969. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from

Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College, a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is situated on a campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about from the university's main campus in Chestn ...

. Terrell has known

President Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 and re ...

almost her entire life. She was a classmate of his son

Beau Biden Joseph Robinette "Beau" Biden III (February 3, 1969 – May 30, 2015) was an American politician, lawyer, and officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army, Army Judge Advocate General's Corps from Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmingt ...

from kindergarten on. She has maintained this connection to the Bidens to the present day.

Career

In 2001, she was on the Senate staff of Joe Biden. She was chief of staff for

Cory Booker Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democ ...

, and advisor to

Tom Wheeler Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was appointed by President Bar ...

. She was a legislative aide to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. She was director of federal policy and strategy, at

Yahoo Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...

, public policy director at

, and was deputy general counsel at

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

. She was visiting faculty at the Biden Institute.

Biden Administration

Following Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States, Terrell was appointed director of the

. In 2021, she lobbied moderate Republicans and Democrats on the

American Jobs Plan The Build Back Better Plan or Build Back Better Agenda was a legislative framework proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden between 2020 and 2021. Generally viewed as ambitious in size and scope, it sought the largest nationwide public investment in ...

, which eventually passed the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

in August 2021 as the

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL),H.R. 3684 is a United States federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov ...

. Terrell, along with

Shalanda Young Shalanda Delores Young (born August 29, 1977) is an American political advisor who was the 43rd director of the Office of Management and Budget, previously serving in an acting capacity from March 24, 2021, through March 17, 2022 concurrently as ...

and

Steve Ricchetti Steven John Ricchetti ( ; born ) is an American political aide who last served as a Counselor to the President under President Joe Biden. He was the chairman of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Ricchetti previously served as Chief of Sta ...

, was tapped to lead the Democratic side in negotiations over the

2023 United States debt-ceiling crisis On January 19, 2023, the United States hit its debt ceiling, leading to a debt-ceiling crisis, part of an ongoing political debate within Congress about federal government spending and the national debt that the U.S. government accrues. In r ...

. She was due to depart at the end of July 2023.

Post Biden-Administration

Terrell serves as a managing director with Macro Advisory Partners, a company which provides businesses with strategic advice.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terrell, Louisa 1969 births 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Biden administration personnel Boston College Law School alumni Living people Tufts University alumni