President-elect Joe Biden has nominated former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development,
NPR reports. Biden also said he was elevating that role — USAID administrator — to be a member of the White House National Security Council. "Samantha Power is a world-renowned voice of conscience and moral clarity — challenging and rallying the international community to stand up for the dignity and humanity of all people," Biden said in a statement on Wednesday.
"I know firsthand the unparalleled knowledge and tireless commitment to principled American engagement she brings to the table, and her expertise and perspective will be essential as our country reasserts its role as a leader on the world stage," he said. "As USAID Administrator, Ambassador Power will be a powerful force for lifting up the vulnerable, ushering in a new era of human progress and development, and advancing American interests globally."
Power, 50, served in the Obama administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. From 2009 to 2013, she served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and as senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights. Before her diplomacy career, Power was a journalist who reported from Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan and Zimbabwe. She was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is currently a professor at Harvard. She was born in Dublin in 1970 and immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland with her family at the age of 9.
Power won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her book A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. First chapter of the book is dedicated to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Empire and the assistance and support USA provided to the Armenians who escaped it.
