President Biden
Joe BidenHouse court passes bill to establish reparations commission Democrats to offer bill to expand Supreme Court Former Israeli prime minister advises Iran to “cool off” amid nuclear threats MORE On Thursday he announced more than a dozen candidacies for senior State Department positions and his first list of foreign ambassador, elevating a significant number of foreign service officers to top-level jobs.
The nominations indicate an effort by the president and secretary of state Anthony Blink
Antony Blinken Night Defense: Biden officially launches Afghanistan withdrawal plan | Probe finds problems with the use of DC Guard helicopters during the June protests. NATO to coincide with US timetable to withdraw troops from Afghanistan Indirect talks with Iran on nuclear deal will resume on Thursday MORE to rebuild trust with State Department staff by promoting career officials and experts in their foreign policy fields who were often sidelined during the former Trump administration.
The announcement is for seven senior State Department positions and nine ambassadorial positions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Most candidates are career external service officers with extensive experience in their designated regions.
Candidates also have a significant number of women and people of color, who are also part of the Biden administration’s drive to increase diversity among senior officials and diplomats.
This includes Karen Erika Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund, a think tank on top transatlantic policies, who will be deputy secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Donfried was also president and senior director of European affairs on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
The president has also appointed Barbara Leaf as deputy secretary of state for near-east 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 the African Development Foundation. Phee is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who currently serves as the Senior Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation. She served as U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan from 2015 to 2017.
Other candidates include Michele Jeanne Sison as Deputy Secretary of State for International Organization; Anne A. Witkowsky as Deputy Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations and Reconstruction and Stabilization Coordinator; Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, Director General of the Foreign Service and Chair of the Foreign Service Council; and Gentry O. Smith as Deputy Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.
For the ambassadors, the president has appointed:
- Larry Edward André, Jr. – in the Federal Republic of Somalia
- Elizabeth Moore Aubin – in the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
- Steven C. Bondy – to the Kingdom of Bahrain
- Maria E. Brewer – in the Kingdom of Lesotho
- Marc Evans Knapper: in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- Christopher John Lamora – in the Republic of Cameroon
- Tulinabo S. Mushingi – in the Republic of Angola and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
- Michael Raynor: in the Republic of Senegal, and to serve simultaneously and without additional compensation as an ambassador to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau
- Eugene S. Young: in the Republic of the Congo