Denis McDonough

Denis Richard McDonough (born December 2, 1969) is an American government official serving as the eleventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs under President Joe Biden since 2021. McDonough served in the Obama administration as chief of staff at the National Security Council from 2009 to 2010 and as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2010 to 2013. He then served as White House Chief of Staff for the full second term of President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017. Early life and education McDonough was born on December 2, 1969, in Stillwater, Minnesota. He was one of 11 children in a devout Irish Catholic family, his grandparents having emigrated from Connemara in the Gaeltacht. McDonough graduated from Stillwater Area High School in 1988, then attended Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota He played safety on the Johnnies football team for Hall of Fame coach John Gagliardi and was a member of teams that won two conference titles in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. McDonough graduated from Saint John's University with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in history and Spanish in 1992. After graduation, he traveled extensively throughout Latin America and taught high school in Belize.