Who Is Usha Vance?
Usha Vance is an American lawyer and the Second Lady of the United States, married to Vice President JD Vance and noted as the first Indian American and first Hindu to hold the role.[1][2] Born Usha Chilukuri in San Diego in 1986, she rose through elite academic and legal circles before stepping into national politics as a key surrogate on her husband's 2024 campaign.[1][2]
Educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Yale Law School, Vance clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts and then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh and went on to practice complex civil litigation and appeals.[1][2] After leaving her Washington law firm in 2024, she shifted focus to public service and family life, balancing her new visibility with raising three children and serving as a trustee of the Kennedy Center and Washington National Opera.[2]
Public Image, Family and Political Influence
Vance's marriage to JD Vance links her Indian American, highly educated background with his Appalachian, working-class story popularized in "Hillbilly Elegy," making their family a symbol of cultural and geographic bridging within the Republican Party.[1] She is widely described as an influential adviser who helped prepare him for the 2024 vice-presidential debate, where commentators later credited her for his strong performance.[1]
Her public image is intentionally restrained but distinctive. Political and fashion press have noted that she departs from a "pageant" style often associated with the Trump-era right, favoring a polished, professional aesthetic that underscores her legal credentials and cosmopolitan background.[1] While generally private, she has used occasional interviews to address rumors and media scrutiny around her marriage, emphasizing stability, shared values, and a desire to shield her children even as she embraces the responsibilities of national public life.[3]
Initiatives, Soft Power and Global Profile
In 2025, Usha Vance began to define a policy-adjacent agenda focused on education and the arts, launching a national Summer Reading Challenge for K–8 students to encourage them to read a set number of books over the break.[4][5] Partnering with libraries and cultural institutions, the challenge promotes literacy, imagination and family engagement while avoiding partisan fights over curriculum, aligning with her own academic background and longstanding support for the arts.[2][4][5]
Her role also extends overseas. Vance has accompanied the vice president on foreign trips to France and Germany and was chosen to lead the U.S. delegation to the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Italy, underscoring the Second Lady's traditional soft-diplomacy function.[1] A 2025 visit to Greenland, however, drew condemnation from that territory's leaders as a "provocation," highlighting how even semi-official travel by a Second Lady can carry significant geopolitical implications in contested regions like the Arctic.[1] Domestically, she has joined First Lady Melania Trump in visits to military bases such as Camp Lejeune, using her platform to spotlight the sacrifices of service members and their families.[1][3]