“Greenfield Nomination Will Inspire Women Globally” -EJS Says, as she Hails Biden Pick for UN Ambassador

Wasting no time to form his government, even as defeated President Donald Trump files tons of lawsuits countering results of the just-ended November elections that saw Biden emerging tops for the popular and electoral college votes, news of Biden’s pick of Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield as his next Ambassador to the United Nations is being greeted in Liberia with extreme glee. Ambassador Greenfield who last served as Washington’s top emissary to Liberia, also chaired the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Foundation) since 2018, playing an invaluable role in guiding its strategy to advance women’s public leadership through supporting the work of the EJS Center.

As The Analyst reports, former President Sirleaf has been overly effusive over the news that President-elect Joe Biden chose Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to represent the government and people of the United States of America at the United Nations.

Speaking about the nomination, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said: “Linda Thomas-Greenfield is an accomplished diplomat, a tireless advocate for gender equality, a champion of close ties between the United States and Africa, and a personal friend. Her nomination will serve as inspiration for women around the world who aspire to ascend to the highest levels of diplomacy.”

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished diplomatic career includes service as Ambassador to Liberia from 2008-2012, when she played an instrumental role in strengthening US-Liberia relations. She later served as Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs from 2013-2017, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa.

Thomas-Greenfield taught political science at Bucknell University before joining the Foreign Service in 1982. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (2004–2006), Ambassador to Liberia (2008–2012), and Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012–2013). In 2017 she was terminated by the Trump administration as part of a “purge of senior State Department officials and career professionals over nearly four years”.

In November 2020, Thomas-Greenfield was named a volunteer member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Department of State.

Pundits who expressed their candid opinions about Joe Biden’s pick for the UN Ambassadorship to this outlet believe that America’s thawed relations with its traditional allies under the erstwhile Trump administration, could be rekindled, especially under the aegis of a UN ambassador who understands the country-specific contexts of post-conflict countries like Liberia that have so much to overcome in terms of governance and reforms.