Avril Haines

Avril Haines

Avril Danica Haines is an American lawyer and former government official. She served as the White House Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. She is the daughter of a biochemist and painter and the granddaughter of a rabbi and a rabbi.

About Avril Haines in brief

Summary Avril HainesAvril Danica Haines is an American lawyer and former government official. She served as the White House Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the first woman to hold this position. On November 23, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced his nomination of Hainers to serve as Director of National Intelligence in the Cabinet, which would make her the first women to hold the position. She was nominated to replace Michael Morell, the deputy and former acting director of the CIA, on August 9, 2013, and took office on the final day of Morrell’s tenure. She is the daughter of a biochemist and painter and the granddaughter of a rabbi and a rabbi. Her mother died of avian tuberculosis when she was 15 years old, and her father is a professor emeritus at CUNY School of Medicine, where he served as chair of the biochemistry department. Her father is also a former mayor of New York City, and she is married to David Davighi, a former New Jersey state senator.

She has a son, a daughter, a son-in-law, and a stepdaughter. She currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her husband and two children. She worked as a legal officer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law from 2001 to 2003. In 2003, she became a law clerk for United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judge Danny Julian Boggs. In 2007, she worked for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Majority Senate Democrats. In 2010, she was appointed to serve in the office of White House Counsel as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the president for National Security Affairs. In 2013, President Obama withdrew her nomination to be Legal Adviser of the Department of State, to fill the position vacated after Harold Hongju Koh resigned.