A Road Less Traveled: National Security Careers After Law School – Reema Dodin

For the second event of the ’25-26 A Road Less Traveled series, we will be speaking with:

Reema Dodin

Chief of Staff, Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI); Former: Deputy Assistant to the President and Senate Liaison for the White House Office of Legislative Affairs; Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Event Details

Friday, October 24

1:15-2:15 p.m.

Speaker Bio

Reema Dodin currently serves as Chief of Staff to Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). Schatz sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee Ranker, he is Ranking Member of the Indian Affairs Committee, and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations, Commerce, and Ethics Committees. Schatz also serves as chief deputy whip and as Deputy Secretary for the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Reema previously served as a Deputy Assistant to President Biden and Senate Liaison for the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. She served in that role from January 20, 2021 until mid-summer 2023. This included work on both the legislative and nominations agenda for the Biden-Harris Administration. Reema also served on the Biden-Harris 2020 transition team, helping build and run legislative planning for the early nominations, including the cabinet, judicial, and key sub-cabinet positions.

Prior to her White House service, Reema worked for Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Democratic Whip, for almost fifteen years. She served as Deputy Chief of Staff where she ran the whip operation for the Senate Democratic caucus. Reema previously served as Senator Durbin’s Floor Director, Floor Counsel, Research Director, and as an aide to his Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.

On her own time, Reema has volunteered as voter-protection counsel with several campaigns including for Jon Tester, Joe Donnelly, Joe Sestak, Obama for America, and the 2016 Clinton campaign. She is a Munich Young Leader, a Truman National Security Fellow, a New Leaders Council Fellow, an Aspen Socrates alum, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Reema is the co-author of a primer on House and Senate Floor procedures through Brookings publications. She is also the co-executive producer of a short film entitled Tallahassee which premiered at the Black Star Film Festival in 2021 and is a New Yorker Screening Room film.

Reema attended the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She originally hails from Irvine, California, and is a member of the California Bar.