Background
McDonough, Denis was born on December 2, 1969 in Stillwater, Minnesota, United States.
White House chief of staff civil servant
McDonough, Denis was born on December 2, 1969 in Stillwater, Minnesota, United States.
McDonough attended Saint John"s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he played safety on the Johnnies football team for Hall of Fame coach John Gagliardi. McDonough graduated from Saint John"s University with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in history and Spanish in 1992. He graduated from Georgetown University"s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service with an MSFS degree in 1996.
He is one of eleven children of Kathleen Marie (O"Mahony) and William Joseph McDonough. He was raised in a devout Catholic family. After graduation, McDonough traveled extensively throughout Latin America and taught high school in Belize.
From 1996 to 1999, McDonough worked as an aide to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he focused on Latin America.
McDonough then served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Tom Daschle. After Daschle"s re-election defeat in 2004, McDonough became legislative director for newly elected Senator Ken Salazar.
McDonough later served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2004. In 2007, Senator Barack Obama"s chief foreign policy advisor, Navy reservist Mark Lippert, was called into active duty and recruited McDonough to serve as his replacement during Lippert"s deployment to Iraq.
McDonough continued to serve as a senior foreign policy advisor to Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.
After President Obama"s election, he joined the administration as the National Security Council"s head of Strategic Communication. He also served as National Security Council. On October 22, 2010, President Barack Obama announced that McDonough would be replacing Thomas East. Donilon as Deputy National Security Advisor, who had been promoted to succeed General James L. Jones as National Security Advisor.
McDonough was seen in photos of the White House Situation Room taken during the monitoring of the Sea, Air, Land operation in Pakistan that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
In February 2013 McDonough urged lawmakers to quickly confirm Chuck Hagel and John O. Brennan to their posts in Obama"s national security team, expressing "grave concern" about the delays.
Married; 3 children.