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| Avril Haines | |
Among the cabinet picks announced by President-elect Joe Biden yesterday was Avril Haines, who will become the first woman to serve as Director of National Intelligence if confirmed. The Baltimore Sun reported that Haines had also been the first woman to be deputy director of the CIA and served as former President Barack Obama’s principal deputy national security adviser. She has worked with Biden for more than a decade.
Bookselling is part of her résumé as well. By the time she was 24, Haines had studied physics at Johns Hopkins University after receiving a degree in physics from the University of Chicago, the Sun noted, adding: "In the mid-1990s, tired of studying physics, she opened Adrian’s Book Cafe in Fells Point, an eclectic bookstore cafe at 714 S. Broadway, with her future husband, David Davighi. The store paid tribute to her mother, featuring her paintings." Among the store's events were monthly erotica literature readings, which some media have highlighted. But there was much more, of course: Adrian's Book Café sold classics, popular fiction, magazines, coffee and light fare.
"I picked a professional," Biden said. "A fierce advocate for telling the truth and leveling it with the decision makers.... I know because I’ve worked with her for over a decade. Brilliant. Humble. Can talk literature and theoretical physics, fixing cars, flying planes and running a bookstore cafe, all in a single conversation--because she’s done all of that."