Who is Usha Chilukuri Vance, first Hindu second lady of US

Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate and to-be vice president, is a corporate litigator at a San Francisco law firm. She became the first Hindu second lady and has an impressive set of credentials. She clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was on the appeals court. She also holds degrees from Cambridge and Yale. 

Her resume is a little conspicuous as her husband gave a speech in 2021 titled “The Universities are the Enemy”, and rarely skipped a chance for bashing the establishments when he campaigned for Senate in 2022, The New York Times reported. 

Her parents moved to the US in the late 1970s after which Usha was born and brought up in a San Diego suburb. Her friends from childhood and teenage describe her as a ‘bookworm’ and ‘leader’. She met Mr Vance at Yale Law School, and the couple got married in Kentucky in 2014 with the blessings of a Hindu pandit in a separate ceremony. 

Miss Vance's family has a record of academic achievements. She has an aunt aged 96, celebrated by Southern India's local media as the nation’s oldest active professor. 

Miss Vance told Reuters, "Most of our family is academically strong, and education has been a top priority.” 

When she studied at Yale and Cambridge, her grandfather and father were professors at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India's premier engineering college. Miss Vance also has a younger sister who is a mechanical engineer in San Diego and her famous aunt who is a medical professional in India’s Chennai.