Ann M. Yastishock

Ann Marie Yastishock is an American diplomat who is the current nominee to be the next US Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, along with the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Ann M. Yastishock
United States Ambassador to Papua New Guinea
Nominee
Assuming office
TBD
PresidentJoe Biden
SucceedingErin Elizabeth McKee
Personal details
NationalityAmerican
EducationPennsylvania State University (BS)
Widener University School of Law (JD)

Early life and education

Yastishock earned her B.S. in economics from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the Widener University School of Law.[1]

Career

Yastishock is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of Minister-Counselor. She currently serves as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in Bureau for Asia, within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She previously was the USAID Mission Director in Hanoi, Vietnam. She has also served as the Chief Advisor to the Acting Administrator and Chief Operating Officer for USAID. Before that, she was the Acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia, responsible for USAID missions and programs in East Asia and the Pacific. She oversaw USAID activities in South and Central Asia as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Asia. One of her assignments was as a government lawyer in Afghanistan.[2] Prior assignments in USAID include serving as the Deputy Mission Director for the regional office of USAID covering Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and Cyprus; Interim Deputy Mission Director for USAID Burma; deputy director of the USAID Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance; Senior Legal Advisor to USAID/Afghanistan; and Resident Legal Advisor to Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Before her tenure at USAID, Yastishock worked as a Rule of Law Liaison for the American Bar Association/Central and East European Law Initiative with the parliaments of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.[1]

In February 2023, a government watchdog reported that several government officials, including Yastishock, were improperly serving in their roles.[3]

Ambassador Nomination

On July 11, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Yastishock to be the next ambassador to Papua New Guinea, serving concurrently as the ambassador to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.[1] Her nomination was not acted upon for the rest of the year and was subsequently returned to Biden on January 3, 2023.[4]

President Biden renominated her the next day. Hearings on her nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 30, 2023. The committee favorably reported the nomination on April 27, 2023. Her nomination is pending before the full United States Senate.[5]

Awards and recognitions

Yastishock is the recipient of numerous USAID performance awards.[1]

Personal life

Yastishock is a native of Pennsylvania and speaks Russian.[1]

References
  1. "President Biden Announces Key Nominees". The White House. 11 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  2. Burger, T. W (5 July 2010). "Central Pennsylvania lawyers who work in Afghanistan take war in stride, offer insight". pennlive. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  3. Katz, Eric (8 February 2023). "3 Biden Officials Are Serving Unlawfully, a Watchdog Rules". Government Executive. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  4. "PN2308 - Nomination of Ann Marie Yastishock for Department of State, 117th Congress (2021-2022)". www.congress.gov. 11 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  5. "PN32 — Ann Marie Yastishock — Department of State 118th Congress (2023-2024)". US Congress. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.