A version of this article, written by Tim Camerato, first appeared Jan. 18 in the Valley News.
A native of Norwich assumed a prominent post in the White House when President Joe Biden was inaugurated on Wednesday.
Jon Finer, a 1994 Hanover High School graduate, is now principal deputy national security adviser.
Finer has years of government experience under his belt.
He served previously in the Obama White House and State Department, and was a Middle East adviser and speechwriter for then-Vice President Biden.
Finer was also chief of staff and director of policy planning for Secretary of State John Kerry during negotiations for the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Most recently, he was deputy head of foreign and national security policy on the Biden transition team under incoming National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who held a teaching residency at Dartmouth College in 2019-20.
Finer, through a spokeswoman for the Biden transition team, declined to comment on Monday.
He grew up in Norwich with three younger siblings, his mother Susan, a former Frances C. Richmond Middle School principal, and father Chad, a physician.
“He’s worked very hard and we’re just pleased he is back doing what he wants to do,” Chad Finer said in a brief phone conversation Monday.
Before entering government, Finer was a foreign and national correspondent for The Washington Post, where he covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq and eventually oversaw the paper’s Baghdad bureau.
Chuck Bohi, who taught history at Hanover High for 27 years, said he isn’t surprised that Finer has a job inside the Biden White House, saying the new president seems to find those “very competent and capable people” for top roles.
“Jon Finer would definitely fit in that category,” he said. “He thoroughly deserves it and will undoubtedly do a good job.”
