Key points
- Usha’s mother is a biologist and her father engineer
- She met JD Vance at Yale Law School
- After graduation the couple got married in 2013
- Usha Vance worked as a law clerk for Brett Kavanaugh
ISLAMABAD: On Monday, JD Vance was sworn in as the United States vice president in the presence of his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, and their three young children.
As President Donald Trump and the vice president took the spotlight during the inauguration day, Google was taken by a trending question: “Who is J.D. Vance’s wife?”
According to the Associated Press, Indian immigrant parents raised Vance who is 39 in San Diego. Usha’s mother is a biologist and provost at the University of California at San Diego; her father is an engineer.
She completed her bachelor’s degree from Yale University followed by a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, with the help of the Gates Cambridge scholarship.
After Cambridge, she got admission to Yale Law School. There she met her husband, JD Vance, who was also studying law.
Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy
In his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance wrote the two familiarised with each other through a class assignment, where he soon “fell hard” for his writing partner.
“In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home,” he wrote. They married each other in 2013.
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After graduation, Usha Vance worked as a law clerk for Brett Kavanaugh while he was working as an appeals court judge in Washington, D.C. Kavanaugh has since become a Supreme Court justice.
Trial lawyer
According to her LinkedIn page, from January 2019 to July 2024, she was a trial lawyer for the Munger, Tolles, and Olson law firm in Ohio. Vance left the law firm after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement. “Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”
Vance is also a trustee of the Washington National Opera and has served on the board of the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association and also as secretary of the board of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, according to the White House.