Shayam Menon, right, associate director for administrative reform in the Education Department’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, with Jack Hession, executive director of Indian American Republican Council.

Shayam Menon, an attorney and civic activist in Virginia, believes this is a historic moment in U.S. history and is pleased with being appointed to the Education Department’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

As associate director for administrative reform, Menon told News India-Times he hopes to assist President George W. Bush’s efforts to make religious and community organizations more active in implementing social change. “President George W. Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives represent a fresh start and bold new approach to government’s role in helping those in need,” Menon said. “Too often, the government has ignored or impeded the efforts of faith-based and community organizations. Their compassionate efforts to improve their communities have been needlessly and improperly inhibited by bureaucratic red tape and restrictions placed on funding.”

The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives ---- located in seven federal agencies ---- were established by the president soon after he took office, and was considered a controversial step that may infringe the separation of church and state. The president wanted to ensure that religiously-oriented organizations could compete with secular non-governmental groups to get federal funds.

“In particular, here at the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the United States Department of Education, our goal is to break down existing barriers and empower faith-based and community groups, enlisting them in support of the department’s mission to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans,” Menon told News India-Times. “My role is to work with our team here at the Center to accomplish this goal.”

Born in Kettering, England, the 38-year-old Menon says he is “extremely honored” that his application for the post was accepted. “I applied for this position because I felt I was substantively and ideologically qualified for it.”

Prior to taking this office, Menon was a partner with Hoxton Financial, LLC, and a principal with The Willard Group. In addition, he was an attorney with Krooth & Altman LP in Washington, D.C. for six years.

He has also been involved in civic activities in Falls Church, Virginia, where he lives with his wife Anita and sons Vijay, Kiran and Neil.

In 1996, he was appointed by Governor George Allen (and re-appointed by Governor James Gilmore) to serve on the board of trustees of the Family and Children’s Trust Fund (FACT) which supports services for the prevention and treatment of violence in families. He was chair in 1999 and remained on the board until 2002.

He holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Washington & Lee University (1987) and juris doctor from the Washington College of Law, The American University (1991).

Menon said his family moved to the United States when he was just 3, and settled down in Charles Town, West Virginia. His father Sreedhara Menon, is a retired doctor. His mother, Meenakshi Menon, died in a car accident in 1993. Menon is second of three sons, and his two brothers are doctors. “My parents have been the greatest influence on my life. My father is the most honest person I know. My mother was the most loyal and compassionate person I knew,” Menon said.

Since April 2002, Menon has served as secretary of the Indian American Republican Council (IARC) in his “spare time.”