Careers, Life, and Yale Thursday Show: Yale Women in Government

Raheemah Abdulaleem serves as Deputy General Counsel in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Administration. The Office of Administration provides a wide variety of legal advice on personnel, fiscal, procurement and administrative law matters to the White House and other components within the Executive Office of the President. Previously, Raheemah worked as a Senior Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division where she litigated employment discrimination cases. Prior to entering government, Raheemah worked at two nationally-recognized law firms where she represented public and private sector employers in various labor and employment related matters. Raheemah joined a faculty of experienced lawyers and judges to teach the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop during Fall 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. Raheemah is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.

Gillian Apfel has been a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State since 2006 and has been serving on a detail as a Una Chapman Cox Foundation Sabbatical Fellow since August 2021. Throughout her 15-year Foreign Service career, she has helped others through consular work, crisis response, refugee admissions, and human resources and equal opportunity counseling. She is committed to diversity and inclusion in the institution. Her overseas postings include Jamaica, Thailand, Iraq, Canada, and Italy. Gillian is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. She practiced law in Seattle as a corporate litigator and then worked for the International Rescue Committee, assisting refugees, asylees, and victims of human trafficking.

Samantha Chaifetz serves as Deputy Counsel to the Vice President. She is detailed to this role from the U.S. Department of Justice, where she has been a litigator on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division since 2007. Prior details allowed Samantha to serve as Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy Technology and the Law (2014-2015) and to work with the White House Office of Communications Research (2010). She began her career in law by clerking for judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.