BR grads get federal honor

Washington — Two Baton Rouge natives were among the 15 people appointed as White House Fellows, the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships announced.

Bethany Rubin Henderson, who now lives in Washington, D.C., leads City Hall Fellows, a nonprofit group that trains and places undergraduates to help city governments.

A lawyer, Henderson has been awarded an Echoing Green Fellowship, and has been named to Next American City magazine’s 2010 list of 33 emerging urban leaders.

Dr. Dave Chokshi, who now lives in Boston, is a primary care physician at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

He worked with the state Department of Health and Hospitals before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Both Henderson and Chokshi were reared in Baton Rouge. Henderson attended Episcopal High School. Chokshi went to Baton Rouge Magnet High School.

The 2012-2013 class will serve in the White House for one year, according to a White House news release.

The highly competitive White House Fellows Program was created in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to give promising American leaders “first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the Federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs,” according to the news release.

The fellows also take part in an education program designed to broaden their knowledge of leadership, policy formulation, and current affairs, according to the press release.