Liza Acevedo is the new communications director for the country's first second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Acevedo, who started her new role in late August, was recently the deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.
As second gentleman, Emhoff, who left his job as a partner at a corporate law firm and now teaches law, has put a focus on issues around equity, especially gender equity.
“I feel very proud," Acevedo, 28, said about her new role working with Emhoff. "And I feel very ready to make a difference working on behalf of the administration to help communities, including the Latino community."
Before she worked for the Biden administration, Acevedo was a director at the global communications firm SKDK, helping lead Covid communications for the Biden-Harris transition team. She was also deputy national press secretary for the Obama administration's housing secretary, Julián Castro, during his 2020 presidential campaign bid. Acevedo also served in a communications role for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
The first in her family to graduate from college, Acevedo majored in economics at Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Acevedo's grandparents were born in Puerto Rico and moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she was born and raised.
She said her grandfather, who turns 90 this weekend, owned a Puerto Rican restaurant in New York. Growing up, she would go to her grandparents' house after church on Sundays to eat the traditional arroz con gandules, Puerto Rican rice with pigeon peas.
“My grandfather always tells the story of when he came with 13 cents in his pocket and did everything he could to make it,” said Acevedo — now working in the White House.
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