Rohini Kosoglu & Dana Perino

Rohini Kosoglu's Biography

Rohini Kosoglu is a leading national policy expert and veteran of the White House, Congress, and presidential campaigns who has been at the forefront of driving transformative change in social, technology, and economic policy over the last two decades. Kosoglu recently served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President, where she was the first Asian American woman to serve in this position. She is currently a Venture Partner at Fusion Fund, a venture firm that focuses on early-stage technology and health care investments. She also is a Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and Director of Innovation Policy at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. 

In the White House, Kosoglu led and promoted initiatives on behalf of the President and Vice President to strengthen democracy, advance gender and racial equity, and create economic mobility for millions of American workers and families. Kosoglu also served as a key advisor during the creation and implementation of the American Rescue Plan, including the national response to the COVID-19 crisis, the CHIPS Act, the AI Bill of Rights, the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Cancer Moonshot. On behalf of the Vice President, she helped forge a number of public-private partnerships in the White House, ultimately driving billions of private sector dollars towards national priorities of the President and Vice President and leveraged the strengths of both the government and private-sector. Vice President Harris praised Kosoglu as “a brilliant and trusted leader” who “brought vision, strategic judgement, and a depth of experience as our Administration has addressed some of the most urgent challenges facing our nation.”

Kosoglu served as a Senior Advisor during both the Presidential transition and 2020 U.S. Presidential election on behalf of President Biden and Vice President Harris. In her campaign role, she also helped manage debate preparations for Vice President Harris. During the 2020 election, Kosoglu crafted policy initiatives to design a more inclusive economy for all communities, particularly those that have been historically left behind, and increase opportunities for American families and workers to succeed.

Earlier, Kosoglu made history as the first South Asian American woman to serve as Chief of Staff in the United States Senate under then-U.S. Senator Kamala Harris. She managed hearing preparations for some of the highest-profile Senate hearings over the last decade including investigations around data privacy, cybersecurity, and social media interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as Supreme Court nomination hearings. Additionally, under her organizational leadership, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies named Harris’ office under Kosoglu's tenure as the most diverse in the U.S. Senate.

Kosoglu’s career in the United States Congress has also included over a decade of leadership positions crafting social, economic, and technology policy initiatives with senior Democratic Senators, including U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Notably, Kosoglu was a key negotiator during the passage of the historic Affordable Care Act. She also was a lead negotiator and drafter during the reform of the Food and Drug Administration which led to landmark designations for approval of innovative drugs and devices, known today as Breakthrough Therapies and Breakthrough Devices, respectively, as well as laws to strengthen patient-centered care in the 21st Century Cures Act.

Kosoglu was a former resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School and received her bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree from George Washington University. She serves on several nonprofit boards and advises across the public and private sectors.

Dana Perino's Biography

Dana Perino is a revered political commentator and journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and a former White House Press Secretary.

She currently co-anchors America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer & Dana Perino, and is a co-host on the hit show The Five, both on the Fox News Channel. The Five has won its time slot every day since it started in July 2011 and has been named the fourth most-watched program in all of cable. Part of an ensemble cast, some viewers have nicknamed Perino “The Voice of Reason” on The Five. A Fox News political commentator, she also appears weekly on other Fox programs and previously served as anchor of The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino.

Before joining Fox, Perino served as the first Republican woman to be press secretary of the United States. She spent more than seven years as part of the administration of President George W. Bush, joining right after the 9/11 attacks as a spokesperson for the Justice Department. A year later, she was pulled to the White House and stayed until the last day of the Bush administration. As press secretary, she handled interactions with the White House press corps and advised the president on communications. President Bush has said that whenever he did a press conference or interview, Perino made sure he was never surprised by a question. She describes her approach to the position as a 50-50 mindset – half the effort went to defending and advocating the position of the president and the United States, and the other half was defending and advocating the media’s access to the president and the government. Perino continues to be active with the Bush Center in Dallas and joyfully says her motto is, “Once a staffer, always a staffer.”

After her years in the White House, Perino went from speaking on behalf of the nation to speaking for herself. Not only becoming a commentator on current events, politics, and foreign policy, she also published And the Good News Is…Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side, which debuted as a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and remained on the list for more than three months. Her book, Let Me Tell You about Jasper . . .How My Best Friend Became America's Dog, was released in October 2016 and reached the No. 10 spot on the New York Times nonfiction best seller list. Perino’s newest book Everything Will Be Okay: Life Lessons for Young Women (from a Former Young Woman), a no-nonsense how-to guide to life for young women looking to reframe their thinking, to believe in themselves, to take risks, to understand their power, and to feel better overall through finding serenity and taking action, was an instant No. 1 national best-seller and reached the No. 3 spot on The New York Times “Advice, How-to, and Miscellaneous” list. Her other publishing credits include editorial direction for Things that Matter by Charles Krauthammer and The Time of Our Lives by Peggy Noonan. As a podcaster, she Additionally, she co-hosted I’ll Tell You What alongside Chris Stirewalt. Hugely popular, the podcast was made into a limited-run TV show in the fall of 2016, marking the first time Fox turned a podcast into a series. She currently hosts the podcast Everything Will Be Okay for Fox News Radio.

In 2010, President Obama appointed her to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which complemented her passion for advocating for individual and economic freedom, especially for women in Africa. Since leaving the White House, Perino and her husband, Peter McMahon, have volunteered in South Africa and Congo. In 2014 they spent a week at a charitable hospital and came back to America to broadcast their findings and appeal for additional help.

To express her gratitude for the opportunities she’s been afforded, Perino started Minute Mentoring, a program for young women that’s like speed dating between mentors and mentees. She also serves on the board of Companions for Heroes, which matches rescue animals with first-responders and veterans managing post-traumatic stress.

Perino was born in Wyoming and raised in Colorado. She has a masters degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois – Springfield. Before the Bush Administration, she worked as a daily news reporter, as a press secretary on Capitol Hill, and in the private sector for global public relations companies.