President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named Linda Thomas-Greenfield as his pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, assigning a career diplomat and former high-ranking State Department official to a key post in his administration.
The appointment also puts a Black woman in a highly visible and influential position among Biden’s foreign policy leadership, after the president-elect promised to promote racial equity and invest in America’s diplomatic corps.
Thomas-Greenfield, who served 35 years in the Foreign Service, is also an expert on Africa, having served as the assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs during the Obama administration.
She is currently head of the Biden transition team’s agency review team for the State Department.
Most recently she was senior vice president at the Albright Stonebridge Group, an international strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm, where she led the firm’s Africa practice.
In her career at the State Department, Thomas-Greenfield held multiple ambassadorships, including as U.S. ambassador to Liberia, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica. She also held postings in Switzerland in the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
If confirmed by the Senate, Thomas-Greenfield will be charged with reestablishing the U.S. position at the United Nations following four years of the Trump administration’s retreat from the organization as part of the “America First” foreign policy.
This includes President Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), to name a few.
Biden has committed to rejoining the Paris climate agreement and the WHO on his first day in office and is preparing to reengage with Iran over its nuclear program with the goal of rejoining the nuclear deal.