Elected in 2023, Neil Makhija serves as Montgomery County Commissioner, representing the 865,000 residents of Pennsylvania’s third largest county and Philadelphia’s largest collar county.
As Commissioner, Neil oversees a county government of 3,000 employees and a $1 billion budget that covers human services, infrastructure, the criminal justice system and the courts, roads and bridges, election administration, and much more.
Neil is the first ever AAPI Commissioner in all of Pennsylvania— and at 37 years old, he is the youngest majority Commissioner in modern history, in the seat formerly held by now-Governor Josh Shapiro until 2017.
Neil is an attorney, educator, and civic leader. He has served as a Lecturer in election law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and President of Indian American Impact, the nation’s leading South Asian civic organization.
Neil has been at the vanguard of protecting the right to vote in Pennsylvania. As Montgomery County Commissioner, Neil serves as Chair of the Board of Elections in Pennsylvania’s most critical county. In 2021, Neil was among 13 civil rights leaders to advise President Biden and Vice President Harris on voting rights. He was named by City & State PA as one of the “40 under 40” most influential people in Pennsylvania politics. In 2022, he provided public testimony on redrawing of Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered state house maps, which led to flipping the chamber for the first time in over a decade.
In his former law practice, Neil was a fierce advocate for Pennsylvania communities on issues of mental health & addiction. He represented Pennsylvania counties in litigation against Purdue Pharma for causing the opioid crisis.
In a nearly 20 year career in advocacy and government, Neil worked in the Obama White House, the U.S. Senate, and earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School on the Horace Lentz Scholarship, which was endowed by a 19th century Pennsylvanian. While at Harvard, he founded the HLS Homelessness Coalition and served as Senior Policy Editor on the Harvard Law & Policy Review. He received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied neuroscience and served as co-president of his class and 2009 commencement speaker.
Neil is married to Dr. Rachel Nash, an internal medicine physician. They live in Penn Valley, Montgomery County with their infant son Avi.