Vanila Singh

Vanila M. Singh was born in Bikaner, India. Her name is an amalgam of the Sanskrit words for "earth" or "world." When Singh was one year old when her parents Lalit and Leela Mathur immigrated to the United States. The family moved to California when she was four years old, and she spent her youth in Fremont, California, attending Niles Elementary School, Centerville Junior High School, and Washington High School. During her childhood her parents helped establish the Hindu Temple in Fremont, also founding the Rajasthani Association of North America.

Singh was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley where she double-majored in economics and molecular and cell biology. Graduating with a B.S., she then moved to Washington, D.C. to become a medical student at the George Washington University Medical Center. She graduated from George Washington University with an M.D. in medicine.

Medical roles

Singh completed her initial medical internship at Yale University Medical Center in 1997 and 1998. An anesthesia resident at Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan from 1998 until 2001, from 2001 until 2002 she was a pain management fellow in various locations, including Cornell University, Columbia Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Hospital for Special Surgery. She is double-certified in anesthesia and pain management from the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). After serving as a clinical assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, she became a clinical associate professor at Stanford University Medical School for anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine. An expert in ultrasound-guided interventional procedures for pain and regional anesthesiology, Singh earned a Masters of Academic Medicine from University of Southern California.

2014 campaign and platform

In January 2014 she challenged incumbent Mike Honda, a Democrat, to represent California's 17th congressional district (Silicon Valley) in the 2014 midterm elections. She was the first Republican-endorsed candidate to enter the race leading up to the June 3, 2014 open primaries held to select the two main candidates for the official elections in November. She filed the paperwork for her candidacy on December 26, and within a month had raised around USD$100,000. Although new to politics, Singh had previously supported politicians such as Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, the first Hindu member of the House of Representatives. On January 17, 2014, the The South Asian Times reported that "observers believe… Singh could combine support from Republicans, women and Indian Americans to come in at No. 2 [in the district election].“ An early poll in March 2014 indicated Singh ahead of Democratic challenger Ro Khanna and behind Honda. According to The Mercury News, after Singh announced her candidacy "Khanna spent big before the primary, even airing television ads, in trying to ensure Singh didn’t peel away too many 'anyone but Honda' votes." As campaign points she focused on topics such as healthcare reform. Criticizing the "totally political" Affordable Care Act, she drew attention to the lack of physician involvement in the drafting of the legislation, arguing it needed to be overhauled or shut down.

Alleged vote dilution

TIME wrote on May 15, 2014 that although Singh was a “[political] neophyte,” her campaign had led to a “sudden flowering of old-style urban ward politics in and around San Jose” with new candidates. In March 2014, two new Republicans had unexpectedly entered the race leading up to the June primary shortly before the filing deadline. A lawsuit filed before Sacramento County Superior Court alleged that Khanna had the recruited candidates, one with a name similar to Singh's, to split the Republican vote three ways, in effect "diluting" votes that might otherwise go to Singh to damage her chances. On March 28, 2014, the court disqualified one of the candidates, Vinesh Singh Rathore, for irregularities in his petition signatures, but dismissed the suit alleging Khanna's involvement. Joel Vanlandingham remained in the race.

She received the endorsement of the Santa Clara and Alameda Republican Party. House Republicans including congressmen Pete Sessions and Eric Cantor also came out in her support, and she was named “one to watch” by the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. The SFGate noted that Singh declined an invitation to a League of Women Voters event that other candidates had agreed to, with Singh's staff stating that the event undermined "the integrity of the electoral process" by allowing her opponent VanLandingham to take part.

Primary results and political roles

Voters began casting ballots by mail on May 3, and on May 5, 2014, Singh published an op-ed on school choice in The Mercury News. On May 14, 2014, Singh held a campaign event at her headquarters that included press and gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari. Around that time, the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that some of "Honda’s supporters in the labor movement have also been donating to [Singh] in hopes of boosting her into second place and knocking Khanna out of a runoff." On June 3, 2014 The Washington Post included Singh on their “she the people” list of women to watch. On June 4, 2014, Honda and Ro Khanna were the top finishers in the election, followed by Singh with 16 percent of the vote.

In August 2014, Neel Kashkari named Singh the chair of his "Indo American Coalition team." Kashkari at the time was campaigning against incumbent California governor and incumbent Jerry Brown, with Singh supporting Kashkari in press statements. On July 18, 2016, the press reported that Singh was serving as a California delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena. In September, the Economic Times also reported that she was "actively working with national lawmakers on health policy issues." In November 2016, Singh was named by India West as one of 2017 Asian-American women "trailblazers" in the annual "Saris for Suits" calendar. On June 12, 2017, she was appointed the chief medical officer to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2016 she joined the editorial board of Interventional Pain Letters, and she serves on the health and information technology council of the California Medical Association. She is a member of the Ultrasound Committee of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, as well as the Scientific Planning Committee of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia. She also serves as vice chairman of the National Physicians Council on Health Policy.

For 2016 and 2017, she was named chair of the professional standards/conduct committee of the Santa Clara County Medical Association (SCCMA).

A resident of the Bay Area of California, Singh is married with two children.