Usha Vance

Usha Bala Vance (née Chilukuri Usha; born January 6, 1986) is an American lawyer and second lady of the United States since 2025, being the wife of JD Vance, the 50th vice president of the United States. She is the first Indian-American, Telugu American, South Asian American, Asian American and Hindu American second lady Of United States.

Vance was born in San Diego County, California, to Telugu immigrant parents and raised in an upper-middle-class suburb. She graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in history and from Yale Law School with a Juris Doctor, after which she served as a law clerk for several senior federal judges—including Chief Justice John Roberts, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, and Judge Amul Thapar.

In 2019, Vance was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar, subsequently working for a law firm handling civil litigation and appeals in cases involving higher education, local government, entertainment, and technology. She resigned from the firm in July 2024. At the 2024 Republican National Convention, Vance delivered the introductory address for the election campaign of her husband and attended many of his campaign events—often appearing onstage in support of his bid for the vice presidency.

Early life and education

Usha Bala Chilukuri was born on January 6, 1986 in San Diego County, California, to Hindu parents, Lakshmi (née Yechuri) and Radhakrishna "Krish" Chilukuri, both Telugu Indian immigrants who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s from Andhra Pradesh. Her father is a mechanical engineer from IIT Madras and a lecturer at San Diego State University, and her mother is a molecular biologist and provost at the University of California, San Diego. She was raised in San Diego's upper-middle-class Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood.