Biden Proposes Samantha Power for USAID Lead

Samantha Power, nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to head the U.S. Agency for International Development, brings human rights and development experience to the role if confirmed.   “As a journalist, activist, and diplomat, I’ve seen the world-changing impact of @USAID,” Power offered in a tweet. “At this critical moment, I feel immensely fortunate to have the chance to serve again, working with the incredible USAID team to confront COVID-19, climate change, humanitarian crises, & more.”As a journalist, activist, and diplomat, I’ve seen the world-changing impact of FILE – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaks to IDP women at the makeshift camp where over 40,000 found refuge at the airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, Dec. 19, 2013.Power served as the ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama from 2013-2017,replacing Susan Rice. She is the youngest U.S. ambassador to the U.N.  In her time as the U.S. ambassador, Power strongly opposed Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria — though she faced criticism because of a lack of military intervention in Syria, particularly after the Obama White House assessed that the FILE – President Barack Obama, center, Vice President Joe Biden, left, and United States United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power attend a meeting at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel in New York, N.Y., Sept. 19, 2016.Power’s unemployment did not last too long, as Obama chose her to be a part of his cabinet upon securing the presidency. Power served on the National Security Council as special assistant to the president and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights before her tenure with the U.N.    Power is the author of three books, including “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction in 2003. The book detailed the lack of U.S. involvement in instances of genocide. Her most recent book, titled “The Education of an Idealist,” is a 2019 memoir that details her life from a childhood in Dublin to diplomacy in the Obama administration. Family lifeAs written in her memoir, Power was born on Sept. 21, 1970, in London to Jim Power and Vera Delaney, though she spent most of her youth in Ireland. She immigrated to the U.S. and moved to Pennsylvania at nine-years-old with her mother and younger brother, Stephen, in September of 1979. Her father, who later died of alcoholism, remained in Ireland after her parent’s divorce.In 1983, Power moved to Georgia with her family. She attended Lakeside High School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she witnessed the desegregation of her school system. Though Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, it was still in practice by the time Power got to high school. The date of Power’s confirmation hearing has not yet been determined.  
 
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