President Biden
Joe BidenHouse panel approves bill to establish reparations committee Democrats must file bill to expand Supreme Court Former Israeli Prime Minister advises Iran to ‘cool down’ amid nuclear threats MORE announced more than a dozen nominations for senior State Department positions and its first slate of foreign ambassador on Thursday, bringing a significant number of foreign service officers to top-level jobs.
The nominations indicate an effort by the president and the secretary of state Antony Blink
Antony Blinken Overnight: Biden officially rolls out Afghanistan withdrawal plan | Probe Finds Problems Using DC Guard Helicopters During June Protests NATO Matches US Timeline to Withdraw troops from Afghanistan Indirect talks with Iran over nuclear deal to resume Thursday MORE to restore trust with the State Department staff by advancing career officials and experts in their foreign policy, who were often sidelined during the former Trump administration.
The announcement concerns seven senior positions in the State Department and nine ambassador posts in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The majority of nominees are foreign office holders with extensive experience in their designated regions.
The nominees also include a significant number of women and people of color, also part of the Biden government’s drive to increase diversity among senior staff and diplomats.
This includes Karen Erika Donfried, the president of Germany’s Marshall Fund, a leading think tank on transatlantic policy, who will become Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Donfried also served as president and senior director for European affairs on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
The president has also nominated Barbara Leaf as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Leaf is currently the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Middle East and North Africa Affairs on the National Security Council.
Mary Catherine Phee is nominated as Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs and a 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 Reconciliation in Afghanistan. She served as US Ambassador to South Sudan between 2015 and 2017.
Other nominees include Michele Jeanne Sison for 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 Directors of the Foreign Service; and Gentry O. Smith for Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.
For ambassadors, the president has nominated:
- 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