Who is Marie Yovanovitch?
November 15, 2019
Yovanovitch is a decorated, nonpartisan career diplomat of the State Department.
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She’s a 33-year veteran of the Foreign Service and was the highest-ranked female ambassador at the State Department.
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She has served under six presidents — four Republican and two Democratic — and served in seven countries, including five hardship posts.
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She was appointed to serve as an ambassador three times — twice by a Republican president and once by a Democratic president.
A hallmark of Yovanovitch’s diplomatic career has been her lifelong effort to stand up for human rights and root out corruption.
BuzzFeed: “Yovanovitch’s first tour in Ukraine came in 2001, when she was tapped to be deputy chief of the US mission in Kyiv. It was a challenging task for the quiet professional, who avoids the spotlight as much as possible, during a chaotic period for Ukraine, which had only secured independence a decade earlier and was still struggling to develop amid rampant corruption and oligarch rule.”
New York Times: “She grew up speaking Russian, graduated from Princeton and joined the State Department six years later. She has worked for presidents of both parties: President George W. Bush appointed her ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, then to Armenia. President Barack Obama named her ambassador to Ukraine in 2016.”
Associated Press: “In Armenia, she pushed officials to ensure fair treatment of protesters arrested after contentious 2008 elections. Colleagues chose her for a State Department award given to an ambassador who shows extraordinary commitment to defending human rights.”
Washington Post: “In her post [in Ukraine], Yovanovitch worked to advance U.S. interests by countering Russian aggression and backing new legal structures intended to root out long-standing corruption in Ukraine’s economy, she and others testified.”
She has been an anti-corruption crusader in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.