Where was Kamala Harris born? A brief look at her background.

If elected president in November, Kamala Harris , the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, both immigrants, will be the first Black woman and South Asian to hold the nation’s highest office.

Harris, 59, was nominated to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden , 81, dropped out of the presidential election in late July and will face Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump , 78, the 45th president.

USA TODAY briefly looks at where it all began for the vice president: Northern California.

Where was Harris born?

Harris was born on Oct. 20, 1964 , in Oakland, California, at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center.

Does Kamala have any siblings?

The vice president has one sister, Maya , 57, born Jan. 30, 1967, in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois.

Who are Harris’ parents?

Harris’ parents, Donald J. Harris and Shyamala Gopalan, met in 1962 while attending the University of California-Berkeley, for graduate school. Married in 1963, the couple welcomed daughter Kamala in 1964, followed by daughter Maya in 1967, according to the New York Times .

The family moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Midwest for teaching opportunities in Illinois and Wisconsin. But in 1972, the couple divorced , and Gopalan returned to Oakland with her two daughters.

Gopalan earned a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology from UC-Berkeley the same year Kamala was born. A distinguished breast cancer researcher, she worked at many of the top research institutions in the U.S. and around the world, according to her obituary . She died of colon cancer on Feb. 11, 2009, at the age of 70.

Harris, 86, is an economist and emeritus professor at Stanford University.

Victor Hagan is the Alabama Election Reporting Fellow for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at vhagan@gannett.com or on X @TheVictorHagan. To support his work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Where was Kamala Harris born? A brief look at her background.