US President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday named Samantha Power as his choice to lead the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), citing her deep experience addressing crises around the world.
Ms Power is an Irish-American and long-time human rights advocate, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under former President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden from 2013 to 2017.
"Power will rally the international community and work with our partners to confront the biggest challenges of our time — including Covid-19, climate change, global poverty, and democratic backsliding," Mr Biden's transition team said in a statement.
"A crisis-tested public servant and diplomat, Ambassador Power has been a leader in marshalling the world to resolve long-running conflicts, respond to humanitarian emergencies, defend human dignity, and strengthen the rule of law and democracy," it added.
Ms Power, 50, also served as a White House national security staffer under Obama from 2009 to 2013.
A former journalist, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her book “A Problem from Hell,” a study of US failure to prevent genocide.
