State Dept official in charge of Tillerson’s agency overhaul resigns after three months

The top State Department official overseeing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s overhaul of the agency has resigned three months after taking the job.

Maliz Beams stepped down after Tillerson brought her in to guide the restructure of the department, one of the secretary of State’s top goals. She will be returning to her home in Boston, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Monday.

“We appreciate Maliz sharing her expertise with us over the past few months. We wish her the best of luck in her next venture,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

According to her biography on the agency’s website, Maliz started her job at the State Department on Aug. 17.

Her resignation was first reported by Bloomberg. Maliz did not immediately return Bloomberg’s requests for comment.

{mosads}Tillerson’s deputy chief of staff, Christine Ciccone, will now oversee the restructuring “effective immediately,” the spokesperson told The Hill.

Her resignation comes as Tillerson struggles to move forward with his plans to rework the agency.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said earlier this month that Tillerson’s leadership team is not “anywhere close to having a plan to present relative to the reforms that they want to make there.”

Tillerson had touted the redesign as a way to “create the State Department of the future.”

Beams’s resignation comes amid reports of low morale at the agency since the start of the Trump administration. Tillerson denied the reports last month.

“I walk the halls, people smile,” Tillerson said. “If it’s as bad as it seems to be described, I’m not seeing it, I’m not getting it.”