Shailagh Murray spent nearly six years shaping communications strategy inside the Obama White House, most recently serving as Senior Advisor to President Obama from 2015 to 2017. Previously, she was Vice President Biden’s deputy chief of staff and communications director.
In her White House roles, Shailagh oversaw a long-term communications planning process and led efforts to vastly expand engagement opportunities for the President and Vice President to include social media products, documentaries, podcasts, book reviews and academic journals, and comedy shows and sitcoms.
Shailagh joined the Obama administration in 2011 after working as a foreign correspondent, congressional correspondent, and national political reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Over the course of her journalism career, she covered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe; the expansion of the European Union; three presidential elections and three mid-term election cycles; and every major debate in Congress during the presidency of George W. Bush, including the Iraq War.
Born in upstate New York, Shailagh grew up in Charlottesville and Richmond, Va. She has a BA in humanities from University of Missouri-Columbia and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University. She has two college-age daughters and an Airedale, and lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with her husband Neil King Jr.
