President Biden
Joe BidenHouse panel approves bill to set up commission for compensation Democrats present bill to expand Supreme Court Former Israeli prime minister advises Iran to ‘cool down’ amid nuclear threats announced on Thursday more than a dozen nominations for senior positions of the State Department and its first foreign ambassador, raising a significant number of foreign service officials to the highest level.
The nominations indicate an attempt by the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antony Blinken
Antony Blinken Overnight defense: Biden officially announces Afghanistan withdrawal plan Probe finds problems with use of DC Guard helicopters during June protests NATO will match US timeline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan Indirect talks with Iran over nuclear deal to continue Thursday resume to rebuild trust with State Department staff by advancing career officials and experts in their areas of foreign policy who were often ousted during the former Trump administration.
The announcement is for seven senior positions at the State Department and nine ambassadorial posts in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The majority of the nominees are careers for foreign service officers with extensive experience in their designated regions.
The nominees also include a significant number of women and coloreds, who are also part of the Biden government to increase diversity among senior staff and diplomats.
These include Karen Erika Donfried, the president of the German Marshall Fund, a leading transatlantic think tank, to be assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Donfried also served as President and Senior Director of European Affairs at the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
The president also nominated Barbara Leaf as assistant foreign secretary for affairs in the East. Leaf is currently the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Affairs in the Middle East and North Africa in the National Security Council.
Mary Catherine Phee is nominated as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Member of the Board of Directors of the African Development Foundation. Phee is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who currently serves as the Chief Deputy Special Representative for the Reconciliation of Afghanistan. She served as US Ambassador to South Sudan between 2015 and 2017.
Other nominees include Michele Jeanne Sison as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizational Affairs; Anne A. Witkowsky for Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations and Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization; Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat for Director-General of the Foreign Service and Chairman of the Board of the Foreign Service; and Gentry O. Smith for Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.
The president nominated the following for ambassadors:
- Larry Edward André, Jr. – to the Federal Republic of Somalia
- Elizabeth Moore Aubin – to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
- Steven C. Bondy – To the Kingdom of Bahrain
- Maria E. Brewer – to the Kingdom of Lesotho
- Marc Evans Knapper – to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- Christopher John Lamora – to the Republic of Cameroon
- Tulinabo S. Mushingi – to the Republic of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe
- Michael Raynor – to the Republic of Senegal, and to serve as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau simultaneously and without additional compensation
- Eugene S. Young – to the Republic of the Congo