MEDIA ADVISORY | January 31 Digital Press Briefing with USUN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on the Power of Democracy and the Future of Peacekeeping in Africa After the AU Financing Security Council Resolution
EVENT: Please join us on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, for a digital press briefing with USUN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield following her trip to Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. During the press briefing, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will also discuss the recent United Nations Security Council Resolution 2719 on financing African Union-led support operations, and its impact on peacekeeping missions in Africa. Following brief remarks, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will take questions from participating journalists.
DETAILS:
Speaker: Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Mission to the
United Nations
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Time: 15:30 Johannesburg | 13:30 GMT | 8:30 ET
Language: English.
Ground rules: The briefing will be on the record.
Login info: To be provided upon RSVP.
Twitter: Join the conversation at #AFHubPress. Follow us on @AfricaMediaHub.
BIOGRAPHY:
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Ambassador United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN)
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to be the Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations as well as the Representative of the United States of America in the Security Council of the United Nations on January 20, 2021. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 23, 2021, and sworn in on February 24, 2021 by the Vice President of the United States of America.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, returned to public service after retiring from a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Geneva), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (2004-2006).
After retiring from the U.S. State Department in 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University from fall 2017 to spring 2019.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was the 2017 recipient of University of Minnesota Hubert Humphrey Public Leadership Award, the 2015 recipient of the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the 2000 recipient of the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she also did work towards a doctorate. She received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May 2018 and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Liberia in May 2012.
LOGISTICS:
- Participants should log in to join the briefing 10 minutes early.
- Participants will be asked to type in their name, press affiliation, and
location. - The speaker will give brief opening remarks, and then the moderator will
open the floor to questions. - Participants will be instructed to type their questions or indicate to the
moderator in the chat that they wish to ask a live question. Journalists may
also submit written questions in advance when registering on Eventbrite or
via e-mail to afmediahub@state.gov. - If you experience technical difficulties during the briefing, you may send an
e-mail to afmediahub@state.gov to alert the moderator to any issues.
