Delacourt, 31, will serve as Jindal's Legislative Director and Counsel and be charged with developing and shepherding legislative priorities and policy initiatives on his behalf.
The Royal Oak, Michigan-born Delacourt was earlier Counsel to the Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Michael G Oxley, Ohio Republican, where she developed legislative and policy proposals and advised Oxley on securities issues.
Delacourt told rediff.com that she was "excited to join the staff of a young and dynamic thought leader in the Republican Party, who also happened to be only the second Asian Indian elected to Congress.
"While I have worked for other Republican members of Congress, working for Congressman Jindal is a privilege not only because of the similarity in our background--we are both first generation Americans born to Indian immigrants--but
Jindal said he was "just so glad to have Sapna on board. I know we have a lot of work to do and Sapna is going to have her hands full, but she is extremely capable and I am confident that she will do a terrific job."
She would be one of his "very important" staffers, he said, describing her a "Hill veteran" with a "distinguished" career.
Delacourt, the youngest of three children, spoke of her growing up "primarily in Rochester Hills," Michigan (she received her BA in political science at the University of Michigan) as the youngest of three children. Her late father, Kanchanlal C Khatiwala, and mother, Madhuri K Khatiwala, both from Surat, had migrated to the US in the early 60s.
She is married to Scott Delacourt, the deputy bureau chief for the Wireless Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. Her sister Sonya K Khatiwala is a family practice physician in Australia, while her brother, Sandeep K Khatiwala, is a mechanical engineer at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan.