Louisa Terrell

Louisa Terrell

Member

Louisa Terrell was appointed to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in 2025.

Louisa Terrell served as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs from January 2021 to August 2023. Currently, she provides strategic counsel to non-profits, political organizations and businesses. During her time in the White House, she led a team to pass a suite of historical bipartisan bills to aid veterans, advance U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and build America’s infrastructure. She played a key role in debt ceiling negotiations and in passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, an unprecedented investment in clean energy and lowering health care costs. Louisa also secured the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as well as hundreds of judicial and executive nominees.

Her lengthy career in government includes serving as Advisor to Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler, Chief of Staff to Senator Cory Booker, Special Assistant to President Obama in The White House Office of Legislative Affairs, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Judiciary Committee Counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden. Louisa also held senior leadership positions in both the Biden-Harris and Obama-Biden transition teams.

In addition to her public service, Louisa has played key roles in the private and philanthropic sectors. From 2019 to 2021, Louisa was the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Public Affairs for McKinsey & Company, and from 2017 to 2019, the Executive Director of the Biden Foundation.

Louisa received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University and her law degree from Boston College Law School. She was a Visiting Fellow for the Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University and served on Tisch College’s Board of Advisors. Most recently, she was appointed to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and is a Practitioner Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Louisa lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two daughters and sweet dog.