White House Task Force on Puerto Rico

Jerry Abramson currently serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. In this role, Jerry oversees the Obama administration’s domestic agenda with state, city, county, and tribal elected officials across the country.

Jerry takes on the role of Director of Intergovernmental Affairs having served in state, city, and county governments in Kentucky. Jerry is the former Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky having served alongside Governor Steve Beshear from 2011 until 2014. Prior to entering state government, Jerry held the role of longest-serving mayor of Louisville with 21 years of service. He served three terms as mayor of the old city of Louisville (1986-1999) and two terms as the first mayor of the consolidated city-county of Louisville Metro (2003-2010), earning the nickname “Mayor for Life.” During his time as mayor, Jerry was President of the United States Conference of Mayors.

Jerry started his public service as an Alderman of the City of Louisville for two terms, and thereafter as Counsel to the Governor of Kentucky, John Y. Brown, Jr. In the private sector, Jerry practiced law with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald, and thereafter with Frost Brown Todd. Throughout his career, Jerry taught classes at the University of Louisville’s School of Law and at Bellarmine University. In 2011, Jerry held the position of Executive in Residence at Bellarmine University and taught several undergraduate courses.

Jerry received his bachelor’s degree in business economics and public policy at Indiana University, where he chaired the state’s College Students for Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 Presidential campaign. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a member of the Center’s Law Journal. Jerry and his wife Madeline have one son, Sidney.

Katherine Branch is the Director of Special Projects and Special Assistant to the Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett. In this role, she oversees and executes a variety of projects designed to support the Senior Advisor in her roles as head of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and as chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls. Branch has been a key member of the Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs team since the very beginning of the President’s first term, and has played a vital role in its work to promote the President’s agenda.

Ryan Daniels serves as the Associate Director for Communications for the Office of Public Engagement and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, Ryan was a Spokesperson for Tax Policy, Economic Policy, and the Budget at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Before joining the Administration, Ryan was the Deputy National Press Secretary and African American Media Advisor at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. During the 2012 election cycle, he worked for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte as the Deputy Press Secretary and then joined the Obama campaign and served as a Regional Press Secretary in Virginia. Prior to working on the convention, Ryan was a Senior Account Executive at Edelman Public Relations. Ryan got his start in political communication in 2007 with an internship in the press office of then House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn and was later hired as the Press Assistant.

Ryan is originally from Gaithersburg, Maryland and graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Mass Communication.

Henock Dory serves as a Staff Assistant and Policy Advisor for the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, Henock worked as an associate at Hamilton Place Strategies, where he conducted issue analysis on wide range of policies surrounding education, international trade, and community-level economic development. Henock earned his B.A. degrees in Political Science and Classics from Stanford University in 2014. Born and raised in California, Henock is a native of Orange County.

David Heifetz serves as a Speechwriter and Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, where he manages message development and advises on engagement with labor and progressive groups, and on national security issues. Prior to this role, David served as the speechwriter to Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, speechwriter and press secretary to the late New Jersey Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, an intern at West Wing Writers, and the speechwriter and personal aide to Alan Khazei during his 2011 Senate campaign in Massachusetts. David is a native of the Boston area and a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where he studied International Relations and Political Economy.

Alissa Ko serves as Senior Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement and the White House’s primary liaison to the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. She also serves as Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, working primarily with Attorneys General and state legislators. Prior to joining the White House, Ko served as the National Asian American and Pacific Islander Vote Director on the 2012 Obama for America campaign, where she helped increase the AAPI vote by eleven percent. After the campaign, she worked on the Presidential Inauguration Committee as the Associate Director of Public Engagement focused on the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Ko has also worked for National Council of Asian Pacific Americans managing immigration outreach and the Asian American Small Business PAC. Ko contributes her involvement in politics to the Taiwanese American Citizens League political internship program, where she continues to volunteer for the program. She is a native of Thousand Oaks, California and a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rohan Patel is a Special Assistant to the President, Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Senior Advisor for Climate and Energy Policy, where he serves as the liaison to local elected officials. Previously, Rohan served as Associate Director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, overseeing climate change and conservation issues. After the 2008 inauguration, he joined the Obama administration as Senior Policy Advisor to Secretary Vilsack at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he focused on Food Safety, Immigration, and Transportation. Prior to his appointment, he spent two years on the Obama Presidential Campaign, where he served in various capacities in Iowa, Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi, North Carolina, Indiana, and Chicago. He has also served on the staffs of Governor Chet Culver (D-IA), the Iowa Senate Democrats, and Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN). Rohan is a graduate of Northwestern University and a native of Goshen, Indiana.

Alexandra Sopko is the Special Assistant and Policy Advisor to the Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Before joining the White House, Sopko served as Executive Assistant in the Office of White House Counsel. She previously worked at the United States Olympic Committee, St. Paul’s School in London, and as a sports reporter at The Washington Times before interning in the White House Office of Public Engagement. Originally from Bethesda, MD, Sopko is a proud graduate of Harvard College.