Indian American Ramya Prabhakar Joins USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s Speechwriting Team
- The Georgia native who is aspiring for a White House gig previously worked at West Wing Writers.
Indian American Ramya Prabhakar has joined USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s speechwriting team, Politico has reported. Prabhakar previously was an associate at West Wing Writers, a contract speech-writing firm founded by former Clinton and Obama speechwriters, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Before that the Georgia native worked at The American University in Cairo as a presidential associate to the university. She was the “sole speechwriter for President Francis J. Ricciardone, and wrote speeches, letters, book inserts, and other written internal and external documents” from his office, her LinkedIn profile says. She is also a member of Speechwriters of Color.
Prabhakar got her BA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University.
While at Johns Hopkins, she completed a semester abroad, in Amman, Jordan, through the School for International Training (SIT), studying geopolitics, international relations and the future of the Middle East.
In an interview with SIT, Prabhakar said she didn’t herself go the traditional path. “I don’t want to be a Foreign Service officer or an officer at the UN,” she said. “I love to write, and I want to be on the communications side of things. I want to help shape the message rather than policy. She did “a couple of internships in speech writing,” she said, and “really fell in love with it.”
Prabhakar was drawn to Jordan because of her interest in the Middle East. She had started taking Arabic in her first semester, so by the time she went to Jordan she was intermediate to advanced She had also taken some classes in international politics and this seemed like a good fit.”
Prabhakar said she eventually wants to be a White House speechwriter, “but lots of stars have to align for that position—so we’ll see.”