Seal of the United States Department of State

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC   TIMES

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate nine career members of the Senior Foreign Service as ambassadors to represent the United States on the world stage.  The nominations are  his first selection of overseas envoys since taking office in January.  Most are career diplomats rather than political appointees like the foreign envoys President Trump selected to serve oversees representing the U.S.  Another difference in the Biden administration is that he is filling U.S. ambassador posts much faster than Trump did at the same time he was settling into office.   In fact,  more than  two years into President Donald Trump’s administration, U.S. ambassadorships to 52 countries and international organizations like the United Nations remained vacant. They  included critical posts in the Middle East and Latin America.   President Biden’s nominations  are: 

• Larry Edward André, Jr. – Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Somalia
• Elizabeth Moore Aubin – Ambassador to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
• Steven C. Bondy – Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain
• Maria E. Brewer – Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho
• Marc Evans Knapper – Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Christopher John Lamora – Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon
• Tulinabo S. Mushingi – Ambassador to the Republic of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe
• Michael Raynor – Ambassador to the Republic of Senegal and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau
• Eugene S. Young – Ambassador to the Republic of the Congo

Larry Edward André, Jr., Nominee for Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Somalia

Larry André, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, is the United States Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at U.S. Embassy Juba, South Sudan.  He is a former Ambassador to the Republic of Djibouti and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.  He has served as Director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, and as Deputy Executive Director  in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, and was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  André earned an MBA from Arizona State University/American Graduate School of International Management and a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College.  He is the recipient of numerous State Department Awards, including the Director General Award for Reporting, and was recently recognized by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the Joint Distinguished Civilian Award.  He speaks French fluently.

Elizabeth Moore Aubin, Nominee for Ambassador to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Elizabeth Moore Aubin, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, is the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, in the Department of State.  Other senior leadership roles held by Aubin during her three decades of service are Executive Director of the Joint Executive Office of the Bureaus of Near Eastern Affairs and South and Central Asian Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada; Executive Director of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Algiers, Algeria.  Aubin earned her B.A. degree from Barnard College of Columbia University and did graduate work at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School.  She speaks French and Italian.

Steven C. Bondy, Nominee for Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain

Steven C. Bondy, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, is a Senior Advisor in the Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.  In 2017-2020 he was Charge d’Affaires a.i. and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  He previously served as the Assistant Chief of Mission in Kabul, Afghanistan and as the Foreign Policy Advisor to the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command.  Mr. Bondy earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Delaware.  The recipient of numerous U.S. government awards, including a Presidential Rank Award, he speaks Arabic, French, Farsi, Turkish and Spanish.

Maria E. Brewer, Nominee for Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho

Maria E. Brewer, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, recently served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone.  Prior to that, Brewer served as the Deputy Director in the Office of Career Development and Assignments for the State Department; as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé of the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria; and as the leader of the management team at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.   Earlier in her career, Brewer’s assignments include service as the Management Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Management Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai, India.  She also was Deputy Executive Director and Supervisory Post Management Officer in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs; Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Management; and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration.  She earned a B.A. from Valparaiso University and an M.S. from the National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces.  She speaks Spanish, Krio and Hindi.

Marc Evans Knapper, Nominee for Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Marc Evans Knapper, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Japan and Korea in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State.  Before assuming that position, Knapper was the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea and, prior to that, was the Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission.  Earlier, Knapper was Director of the State Department’s Office of India Affairs and Director of the State Department’s Office of Japanese Affairs.  His other assignments include leadership positions in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.  Knapper earned his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.A. from the Army War College.  He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s Linguist of the Year Award, and a Presidential Rank Award.  He speaks Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

Christopher John Lamora, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon

Christopher Lamora, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana. He was previously the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central Africa and African Security Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department and he also served as Director of the Office of Central African Affairs, Deputy Director of the Bureau’s Office of Economic and Regional Affairs, and desk officer for the Democratic Republic of Congo.  He served overseas at the U.S. embassies in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Greece and the Central African Republic, and the U.S. Consulate General in Douala, Cameroon. Lamora earned a B.S. at Georgetown University and speaks French, Spanish, and Modern Greek.

Tulinabo S. Mushingi, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe

Tulinabo Mushingi, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, is currently U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.  Mushingi also served previously as the U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso and as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Mushingi was the Deputy Executive Secretary and Executive Director in Executive Office of the Secretary in the Department of State.  Earlier in his career, Mushingi served at the U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; the U.S. Consulate in Casablanca, Morocco; and the U.S. Embassies in Mozambique and Malaysia as well as in various assignments at the State Department in Washington, D.C.  Mushingi earned a Ph.D. from Georgetown University, an M.A. from Howard University, and both “Graduat and Licence” degrees from the Higher Institute of Education in Bukavu, Congo.  He is a recipient of the Palmer Award for the Advancement of Democracy.  He speaks Portuguese, French, and Swahili.

Michael Raynor, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Senegal and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau

Michael Raynor is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who most recently served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia.  Earlier, he held positions as the Assistant Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and the U.S. Ambassador to Benin.  Raynor also was the Director of the Office of Career Development and Assignments in the Bureau of Global Talent Management and the Executive Director in the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department.  Raynor’s earlier experience includes service at the U.S. Embassies in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Guinea and Djibouti.  He earned his B.A. from Lafayette College and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.  He is the recipient of the State Department’s Leamon R. Hunt Award for Management Excellence.  He speaks fluent French.

Eugene S. Young, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of the Congo

Eugene Young is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who currently serves as the Economic Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel.  Previously,  Young was the Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria; the Consul and Senior Civilian Representative of the U.S. Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan; and the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Among his other assignments,  Young served as the Economic Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, the Consul General of the U.S. Consulate General in Durban, South Africa, and as a Special Assistant in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of State.   Young earned his B.A. degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and an M.A. degree from The George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.  His foreign languages are German, French, Slovene, Slovak, and Serbo-Croatian.

SOURCE:  WHITE  HOUSE