Manisha served as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State (2017-2021) during President Trump’s first term. She was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first woman in history to lead the bureau. While Assistant Secretary, she served for a period concurrently as Acting Under Secretary for Economic Growth,
Energy, and the Environment. Her portfolio covered trade, finance, sanctions and cyber issues. She testified numerous times before Congress. In 2020, President Trump nominated her to be U.S.
Ambassador to the OECD. She also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Economic Bureau during Bush 43.
She began her public service roles on Capitol Hill. She served as Deputy Chief Counsel on the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Prior to public service, Manisha practiced corporate law at Reed Smith and Squire Sanders & Dempsey. In addition, she worked as a senior executive at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
She has received the Outstanding Alumni Public Service Award from the University of Florida College of Law, the Champion Women Award from Independent Women’s Forum, the Distinguished Travel Champion Award from the U.S. Travel Association and a Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. State Department. She is listed as a “notable person” from her hometown of
Lake Alfred, Florida. She is the author of two books, The Café on Main Street (2023) and Sunshine and Lite Rhyme (2024).
Manisha currently sits on the board of trustees of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, the advisory boards for the American Foreign Policy Council and the Meridian International Center. She is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University and Visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University Scalia School of Law.
Manisha earned a B.A. with honors from the University of Miami at the age of 19 and a J.D. from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She studied at the University of Leiden in the
Netherlands and she earned an LLM in International Legal Studies at the American University Washington College of Law. She has been admitted to practice law in Florida, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.