Politics

White House Names Deputy Social Secretary to Top Job

Published

10 years ago

April 17, 2015

In this photo taken April 15, 2015, Deesha Dyer walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington to attend the seventh annual White House Kitchen Garden Planting withfirst lady Michelle Obama. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former hip-hop journalist who became a White House intern in her 30s was named on Thursday as the new White House social secretary.

Deesha Dyer, a Philadelphia native, will oversee planning for everything from the annual Easter Egg Roll attended by tens of thousands of people to opulent state dinners for hundreds, along with numerous receptions, ceremonies and other events that take place daily at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Dyer, 37, started in the social office about two years ago and immediately impressed Michelle Obama with “her passion, creativity, public-mindedness and relentless competence,” the first lady said. “Since then, whether helping flawlessly execute state dinners or going the extra mile to open the White House to people who never dreamed they would walk through these doors, Deesha has worked tirelessly to truly make the White House the ‘People’s House.'”

Dyer succeeds Jeremy Bernard, who plans to leave after a state dinner for Japan scheduled for April 28.

Bernard held the social secretary’s post for more than four years and was the first male in that job in White House history.

Before starting her career in government, Dyer was an assistant at Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and a freelance journalist covering East Coast hip-hop culture. She also worked with young adults, created a Philadelphia-based hip-hop AIDS program and as a CARE advocacy volunteer, the White House said.

Dyer returned to college at age 29 and earned a degree from the Community College of Philadelphia.

She joined the White House in 2009 as a 31-year-old intern in the office of scheduling and advance. She was brought on full-time a year later, beginning as associate director for scheduling correspondence and working her way up to deputy social secretary in 2013.

At one point, Dyer traveled with President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama to handle lodging and logistics.

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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June 7, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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1 week ago

June 2, 2025

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Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

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