President Obama intends to nominate a new US Ambassador in Rwanda

The President Obama has announced his intention to nominee Ms Erica J. Barks Ruggles, as the  US Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda, Department of State. 

Erica J. Barks Ruggles, a career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, is Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Cape Town, South Africa, a position she has held since 2011.

From 2009 to 2011, she served as Deputy to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations.  From 2005 to 2008, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the Department of State (DOS).

From 2004 to 2005, Ms. Barks Ruggles was a Member of the Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Secretary of State.  From 2001 to 2004, she served as the Economic Section Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway.  From 2000 to 2001, Ms. Barks Ruggles was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

She was the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at DOS from 1999 to 2000, and Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council from 1996 to 1999.

Ms. Barks Ruggles was a Line Officer in the Executive Secretariat at DOS in 1996 and was the Desk Officer in the Bureau of African Affairs from 1994 to 1996. From 1992 to 1994, she served as the Vice Consul at the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai (Madras), India.  Ms. Barks Ruggles received a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

The current US Ambassador in Rwanda, Mr Donald W. Koran was sworn in as the Ambassador to Rwanda on August 8, 2011.  He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who had previously served as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Rwanda from 1999 to 2001.

 His other assignments include Havana, Caracas, Antananarivo, Lomé, Rabat and Niamey, as well as in the State Department’s bureaus of African Affairs, International Organization Affairs, and Intelligence and Research. 

He has a B.A. from the University of Texas, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University in economics. He is married and has two daughters.

Source: www.whitehouse.gov

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