Who is Neela Rajendra? Indian-origin DEI chief at NASA fired amid Trump's anti-diversity policies

After a few months of hide and seek with the Donald Trump administration, Neela Rajendra, the Indian-origin chief DEI officer at NASA's jet propulsion lab has been fired, a report by the Daily Mail said.

"Neela Rajendra is no longer working at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory]. We are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact she made to our organization. We wish her the very best," lab director Laurie Leshin wrote in an all-staff email on Thursday.

The move comes in the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's policies against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

What makes her removal so significant is the fact that while nearly 900 workers of the NASA laboratory were laid off over 2024 citing budgeting issues and the diversity office was cut, Rajendran was secretly kept.

As per the report, all references to DEI were removed from Rajendra's profile while she continued performing many of the same duties as 'head of employee success.' In early March, she was in charge of the lab's 'Black Excellence Strategic Team'.

With increasing discontent that Rajendra was being protected from Trump government's DEI cuts, NASA fired her earlier this week.

The new DEI-lite Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success Rajendra was set to run is now being relocated under human resources, the lab director wrote in the all-staff mail.

Trump, a Republican, has issued a series of executive orders seeking to dismantle DEI programs since he took office on Monday.

DEI programs seek to promote opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people and other traditionally underrepresented groups. Civil rights advocates argue such programs, generally backed by Democrats, are needed to address longstanding inequities and structural racism.

Trump and his allies say DEI programs unfairly discriminate against other Americans and weaken the importance of candidates' merit in job hiring or promotion.

Following the orders, NASA's acting administrator Janet Petro told employees by email in March, the Office of the Chief Scientist, the Office of Science, Policy, and Strategy, and the diversity, equity and inclusion branch within the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity would be closed.

(With Reuters inputs)