Parag Mehta, 31, a Temple High School graduate, has worked for the Clinton and Bush administrations, as well as for the Democratic National Committee.
In the new post, he will serve as public liaison for three communities: Asian-American Pacific Islanders; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender; and education and the arts.
During the next 55 days, members of the transition team will consult with advocacy groups, as well as community and business leaders, getting input from every level on how they would like a new government to be structured.
On Nov. 14, Mehta resigned his job as director, external communications for the Democratic National Committee, a post to which he was appointed four months ago. Earlier, he was director of training for the DNC.
Mehta, valedictorian of his 1994 graduating class at Temple High School, received his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University of Texas at Austin and master of public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
His participation in local activities began early when he was growing up in Central Texas. As a seventh-grader, he did an internship at the Temple Daily Telegram. In eighth grade, he won the annual spelling bee, which is hosted by the newspaper.
His father, Dr. Vijay A. Mehta, who served Central Texas VA for 28 years, once encouraged Parag to go into a medical field.
He admits now he’s glad his son didn’t listen.
“Maybe sometimes with all our good intentions and knowledge of life, we are wrong,” Vijay Mehta, a general surgeon who hails from Jamnagar in India, wrote in a recent blog posting to other parents.
Parag’s mother, Dr. Vinoo V. Mehta, is a physician at Waco VA Hospital, and was raised in Mumbai.
Mehta has two siblings - older sister, Ami Buddin, a nurse in Pensacola, Fla., and younger brother, Chirag Mehta, a student at Austin School Massage Therapy in Killeen.
Mehta worked in the Clinton administration during the time the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders was created by the Office of Public Liaison. He served as the communications chief. He also worked for about a year in President George W. Bush’s administration.
