Kamala Harris was elected Vice President of the United States in 2020, becoming the first woman elected to the office. A daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris also made history as the first African American person and the first South Asian American person to be elected Vice President. 

Before becoming Vice President, Harris represented California in the U.S. Senate. She had earlier served as California’s attorney general —the state’s chief law officer - and, prior to that role, Harris was the district attorney of San Francisco, California.

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Harris' mother, Shyamala, emigrated from India to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where she met Harris' Jamaican-born father, Donald. Shyamala carved out a career as a renowned breast-cancer researcher, while Donald became a Stanford University economics professor. At age 12 Harris moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada and attended high school there. Harris earned a B.A. in political science and economics from Howard University and a J.D from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.