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Usha Chilukuri Vance, Yale law graduate and trial lawyer, was thrust into the spotlight this week after her husband, JD Vance<\/a>, was chosen as Donald Trump\u2019s running mate<\/a> in the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n Chilukuri Vance, 38, was raised in San Diego, by Indian immigrants. Her mother is a biologist and provost at the University of California at San Diego; her father is an engineer, according to JD Vance\u2019s campaign. She received an undergraduate degree at Yale University and a\u00a0master of philosophy at the University of Cambridge<\/a>\u00a0through the Gates Cambridge scholarship.<\/p>\n After Cambridge, she met her husband back at Yale, where the two studied law. In his 2016 memoir, \u201cHillbilly Elegy,\u201d JD Vance said the two got to know each other through a class assignment, where he soon \u201cfell hard\u201d for his writing partner.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha\u2019s presence made me feel at home,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n They graduated in 2013 and wed the following year.<\/p>\n After law school, Chilukuri Vance spent a year clerking for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served as an appeals court judge in Washington, followed by a year as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts.<\/p>\n She has since become a trial lawyer for the Munger, Tolles and Olson law firm at its San Francisco and D.C. offices. Chilukuri Vance left the law firm where she worked shortly after her husband was chosen as Trump\u2019s running mate.<\/p>\n \u201cUsha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,\u201d Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement. \u201cUsha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.\u201d<\/p>\n Chilukuri Vance was not available Tuesday for comment, according to a spokeswoman for JD Vance\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n In his memoir, Vance credited part of his success and happiness to his wife.<\/p>\n \u201cEven at my best, I\u2019m a delayed explosion\u2014I can be defused, but only with skill and precision,\u201d Vance wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that I\u2019ve learned to control myself but that Usha has learned how to manage me.\u201d<\/p>\n Voter records show that as of 2022, Chilukuri Vance was a registered Republican in Ohio, and voted in the Republican primary that year \u2014 the same election that her husband was running in the Republican senate primary.<\/p>\n JD and Usha Vance live in Cincinnati, and have three children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. Outside of work, she served on the Cincinnati Symphony Board of Directors from September 2020 to July 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n