Most TT immigrants never know where life will lead them or what work they will do, but the last place Khanya Brann expected to land a job was in the White House, home to the president of the US.
“Oh, President (Joe) Biden just walked by,” Brann said on a WhatsApp call in mid-December as she co-ordinated an interview planned for her week-long Christmas vacation in Trinidad.
Spotting President Biden never got old, and the excitement in Brann's voice outweighed any possible worries about an uncertain future as Biden’s presidency neared its conclusion. Brann will move on.
In many ways, Brann, 28, has never stopped moving. When asked where she’s from, she says without hesitation, “Trinidad.” She was born in London, lived there for a year; moved to Montreal, Canada for a year; and then to Mt Hope, Trinidad for seven years, where she attended St Xavier’s Private School in St Joseph. Her family moved back to Montreal for another year and then to the US. Her dad Stacey’s job as a surgeon kept the family moving.
In 2009, when she was nine, the family moved to Elkins Park, 20 minutes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied journalism at Temple University and graduated in May 2019.
“I wanted to be a feature writer and work at the Philadelphia Enquirer, but they weren’t hiring,” said Brann. The Biden campaign headquarters in Philadelphia was hiring so Brann joined as a paid communications intern for US$15 an hour in July 2019.
It was a fast-paced, exciting job that required organisational and communication skills.
“It involved a lot of media monitoring, compiling media lists and daily media clips and transcribing Biden’s speeches,” said Brann.
“When Biden began his bid for the presidency, there was a lot of work to do from the ground up. It was fun, certainly stressful, and a steep learning curve because I had no political experience. I got a good foundation for the work I do now.”
The internship lasted from July to November 2019. From January to July 2020, Brann worked as a communications fellow at Philly Counts – a project connected to the city’s census.
Brann said, "We needed to make sure everyone got counted in that census to get a clear idea of programmes needed.”
After that, Brann landed once again on the Biden/Harris campaign as a communications associate for the state of Pennsylvania.
On New Year’s Eve, 2019, Brann was at home with her family when she got a text from Kate Bedingfield, the White House Communications Director, asking if she was interested in working at the White House.
“I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ When I showed the message to my mom, (Karen) she was speechless,” said Brann.
Brann became a senior communications assistant and special assistant to Bedingfield in January 2020 when he moved to Washington DC and into a White House office just a few steps from the Oval Office where Biden worked.
And still, she was on the move, working for the Environmental Protection Agency as deputy press secretary for a year. At the end of October 2023, she returned to the White House to joi
