Maya Harris was born on January 30, 1967 and is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. She is most famously the younger sister of Kamala Harris, the Former Vice President of the United States of America, and was also the 2024 presidential front runner for the Democratic Party. Maya has a lot of input into her sister’s political career: she was the chair of the campaigns in the 2020 presidential bid for Kamala and was the first campaign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
Early life and educational background
Maya Harris was born into a middle-class academic family with her sister in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Their mother, from India, is a breast cancer researcher. Their father, from Jamaica, is a professor emeritus of economics. Most of the time, the two sisters were taken care of by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, after their parents separated. The lessons guided them towards a life of grit and determination.
Maya went to Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California, and from there she proceeded to the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989. She then went to Stanford Law School and got her Juris Doctor degree in 1992. While at Stanford, Maya was involved with numerous legal projects, including serving as an editor for the Stanford Law Review and coordinating the Domestic Violence Clinic.
Maya Harris professional career
Maya Harris is a well-developed legal and public policy professional. After J.D., she embarked on her work as a civil litigator, then later as an adjunct professor, and ultimately as the Dean at Lincoln Law School in San Jose. Professionally, she has focused on civil rights, racial and gender justice, and public policy advocacy.
Over her career, Maya has served an array of revered positions, such as:
- Executive Director of ACLU of Northern California
- Vice President of Democracy, Rights, and Justice at Ford Foundation
- Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School
- Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress
Maya’s work has widely contributed to changing policy discourse in the areas of civil rights and social justice, thus crediting her in the legal lobbies.
Maya’s personal life
Maya Harris was an extremely tender young mother when she gave birth to her only daughter, Meena Harris. Speaking of the real struggle, she was a single mother. Yet, she shared that she is proud of what her daughter has become and is. Her daughter followed her track, becoming an entrepreneur and an author.
Maya is a doting grandmother of two pretty girls, Amara and Leela. She shares her experiences as a grandmother excitedly in all social media and writes, ‘It is the most charming, satisfying, and happiest experience of life till now.’
Maya Harris health problems
In 2020, Maya made her decades-long battle with lupus, an autoimmune disease, public when she wrote an essay in The Atlantic to talk about the struggles of staggering under the weight of the joint pain and extreme exhaustion that are part of this disease. Her public frankness struck a chord across society, dramatically illustrating that, through her own family’s campaign, awareness and closeness with autoimmune diseases had come harmfully close to home.
The Kamala Harris connection
Kamala’s sister, Maya Harris, has always been supportive of her. Both sisters have talked about their “unbreakable” bond, formed upon shared experiences and mutual aid since they were little girls. Maya has always been an ardent supporter of Kamala in every which way regarding her career in politics and has always been there for her with sage advice in crucial junctures. All of this adds up to making Maya Harris the sister of The Former Vice President, Kamala Harris but also, in her own right, a top-flight lawyer and advocate.
