Kenyan-born journalist Polly Irungu lands White House Job

Kenyan-born journalist, Polly Irungu has been appointed the first official photo editor job at the White House. She made the announcement on her Twitter profile on Friday noting that she was the first person to hold the position in the Office of the Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m excited to announce that I’m the first official Photo Editor for the Office of the Vice President to the Biden-Harris Administration. Honoured and grateful is an understatement,” She wrote on a tweet attached to a photo of her standing outside the official residence of US President Joe Biden. She joins fellow Kenyan Joy Ngugi at the White House who works as a video producer and editor in the Office of Digital Strategy in Biden’s administration. Joy also announced her new job on her Twitter profile in January last year. Ms Irungu is the founder of Black Women Photographers, a global community and directory of over 1000 Black women photographers that advocates for Black women to receive proper recognition and get hired. As a self-taught photographer, writer and founder, she is a woman of many achievements with her work being published in numerous publications including the New York Times, Reuters, Global Citizen, BBC News, MEFeater, Refinery29, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed and CNN. She most recently worked as a digital editor at New York Public Radio (WNYC). In 2017, Polly completed a degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon. Born in Nairobi, Ms Irungu has lived around the world from Nairobi to Topeka, Kansas to Eugene, Oregon to Washington, D.C., to Little Rock, Arkansas, and ultimately to Brooklyn, New York. Currently, she is a part of Twitter and LinkedIn’s Creator programs and a teacher at the International Centre of Photography. She is also a 2022 International Women Media Foundation (IWMF) Gwen Ifill Fellow, a programme designed to address the lack of diversity in leadership positions across newsrooms in the United States. In a LinkedIn post posted earlier this week, Ms Irungu celebrated her mother, Dr Jane Irungu, who also landed a new position as Utah State University's first Vice President of diversity, equity and inclusion. smuia@ke.nationmedia.com