2021/01/25 21:23 Shanthi Kalathil (National Endowment for Democracy photo) Shanthi Kalathil (National Endowment for Democracy photo) NEW DELHI (Taiwan News) Washington has just given a boost to its Taiwan policy by appointing Shanthi Kalathil as the coordinator for democracy and human rights at the National Security Council under President Joe Biden. Shanthi Kalathil is the daughter of the late James Kalathil, who was of Indian origin, and Lucia Tang, a Taiwanese national. While a post-doctor fellow in Physics at Carbondale University in Illinois, her father met her mother, then a Ph.D. student in English at the same school. Brought up in the U.S., the 49-year-old Shanthi Kalathil previously served as the senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, where her work focused on emerging challenges to democracy.