Shanti Sethi, An Indian-American Navy Veteran, Selected As Kamala Harris’s Defence Advisor

According to a media source, Shanti Sethi, a pioneering Indian-American Navy veteran, has joined US Vice President Kamala Harris’s office as her executive secretary and defence advisor.

Ms. Sethi, the first Indian-American commander of a major US Navy combat ship, just joined Vice President Harris’ office, according to Vice President Harris’ senior advisor Herbie Ziskend, as reported by the Politico news website.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms. Sethi’s new job entails coordinating National Security Advisor documentation across the Vice President’s Office.

From December 2010 to May 2012, Ms. Sethi was the commander of the guided-missile warship USS Decatur. She was also the first woman to command a US naval vessel on a visit to India.

The combat exclusion law was still in effect when she joined the Navy in 1993, thus her options were limited. The Exclusion Act was lifted when she became an officer, though.

“Because I was going into this very male-dominated workplace,” Ms. Sethi told USA Today in an interview last year, “I was able to move on to have a career path that was much more available to me.”

Ms. Sethi was born in the Nevada city of Reno. According to the USA Today story, her mother was born in Canada and became a naturalised US citizen at the age of 12, while her father arrived to the US from India in the early 1960s.

Ms. Sethi has previously stated, “You can’t be what someone else believes you should be.” “You have to accept who you are and say, ‘This is who I am, and I can succeed as who I am.'” I’m not required to act or pretend to be someone else.”

Ms Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant from Chennai, made history in 2021 when she became the country’s first female Vice President. The 57-year-old former California Senator is also the first African-American and South Asian-American vice president.