Shanti Sethi, an Indian-American member of the United States armed forces, was appointed as national security aide to Vice President Kamala Harris. Sethi’s official position at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building will be executive secretary and defence advisor, media reports suggest.

Shanti Sethi’s LinkedIn profile suggests that she will be coordinating National Security Advisor documentation across the Office of the Vice President. 

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Through her decades-long association with the United States armed forces, Sethi has set multiple benchmarks. After joining the American Navy in 1993, the combat exclusion law was still in effect, which meant that she was limited in what she could do.

However, when she was an officer, the Exclusion Act was lifted, news agency PTI reported.

Sethi became the first-ever female commander of a United States naval vessel that visited India. She also USS Decatur — a guided missile destroyer — between December 2010 and May 2012.

In an interview with USA Today last year, Shanti Sethi opened up about her gender-related struggles in the American armed forces. 

“I was able to move on to have a career path that was much more open to me because I was going into this very male-dominated environment”, the armed forces’ official said. Sethi’s father immigrated to the US from India in the early 1960s, news agency PTI reported.

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Herbie Ziskend, the senior advisor to United States Vice President Kamala Harris, announced the appointment of Shanti Sethi to the Veep’s senior staff, according to reports from Politico.

Kamala Harris became the first-ever Vice President of the United States with ancestral links to India. Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India and later came to the United States.