WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate the following individuals to serve as top leaders in his administration.
Also today, the White House will begin renominating nominees who were not confirmed in the last Congress. Today’s Senate floor will include nominees to serve as agency heads, as U.S. ambassadors, in key national security positions, and on bipartisan boards and commissions. The White House will continue to forward nominations to the Senate in the coming weeks and hopes the Senate will act quickly.
Ana A. Escrogima, Candidate for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Sultanate of Oman
Ana A. Escrogima is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Advisor. She currently serves as Consul General of the US Consulate General in Montreal, Canada. Prior to that, Escrogima was the Director of the Office of Regional and Multilateral Affairs in the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs. She also served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Yemeni Affairs Unit, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Algiers, Algeria, and as the Deputy Director for Syria, in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. . . Among her other postings, Escrogima served at the State Department as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, as Deputy Director of the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, and as the Arabic Language Spokesperson at the Arab Regional Media Hub in Dubai, UAE. Escrogima earned a BA degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York, New York. In addition, she received an International Study Certificate from L’Institut de Sciences Politiques, Paris, France. Escrogima speaks Arabic, Spanish and French.
Jean Elizabeth Manes, Candidate for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Colombia
Jean Elizabeth Manes, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor, currently serves as Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Chief Foreign Policy Advisor, U.S. Southern Command, a position she has held since 2019. Previously, Manes served. as US Ambassador to El Salvador from 2016 to 2019. She served domestically at the US Department of State as Senior Deputy Coordinator for the Bureau of International Information Programs and as Director of Resources for the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Her overseas assignments include Public Affairs Officer in Afghanistan; Senior officer in the Azores, Portugal; and assignments in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Syria. She is the recipient of a Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, five Senior Foreign Service Performance Awards, multiple Superior Honor Awards, was named Public Diplomacy Professional of the Year and was the recipient of the Lois Roth Award for Excellence in Education and Cultural Diplomacy. A native of Florida, Manes speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration from American University in Washington, D.C., and a degree in Foreign Policy from Liberty University in Virginia.
Ervin Jose Massinga, Candidate for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Ervin Jose Massinga, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Minister Counselor class, currently serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. Before that, Massinga was Under Secretary for Pakistan Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and, before that, he was the Director of the Bureau’s Pakistan Office. Previously, Massinga was Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan and of the US Embassy in Conakry, Guinea. Among his other assignments, he was United States Trade Representative Trade Policy Officer, served at the American Embassy in Beijing, China as Head of the Macroeconomic, Finance, Energy Economic Unit and in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, as the Deputy Head of the U.S. Political/Economic Unit of Embassy. Massinga earned his BA degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and his Master of Arts degree from the University of Washington, School of Public Administration. His foreign languages are French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.
Matthew D. Murray, Candidate for the Rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as United States Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
Matthew D. Murray, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Advisor, has served as the US Chief Executive Officer for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) since February 2022. In this role, he coordinates US participation in APEC. and supervises the Office of Economic Policy in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to this assignment, Murray led the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Trade Affairs as a Senior Official. Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Murray has focused on U.S. economic engagement with the Asia Pacific region during his State Department career, including Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, and Special Assistant for East Asia and Pacific Issues in the Office of the Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment. Murray also served abroad in Beijing, Shanghai, Dar es Salaam, and New Delhi and in Washington as Director of Surveillance in the Intelligence and Research Agency. Murray is the recipient of numerous State Department performance awards, including a Senior Foreign Service Performance Award. A native of Maryland, he holds master’s degrees from the US Army War College and the University of Pittsburgh, and a bachelor’s degree from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. He speaks Chinese.
Yael Lempert, Candidate for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Yael Lempert, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor, is the Principal Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the Department of State, where she previously served as Acting Assistant Secretary. Before that, she was Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim at the US Embassy in London, where she also served as Deputy Chief of Mission. Previously, Lempert was Acting Deputy Secretary of State for Egypt and North Africa, and the Senior Director for the Levant, Israel, and Egypt at the National Security Council, also serving as Special Assistant to the President. She also served as Deputy Chief Officer at the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, and worked at the US Embassy in Libya, where she served as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission. Before that, she served in the US Embassy in Egypt. Other assignments include Director for Iraq at the National Security Council; Administration Officer at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad; Special Assistant for South Asian and Near Eastern Affairs to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; Iraqi desk officer; and tours of the State Department’s Office of Nonproliferation, and the US Consulate General in Shanghai. Lempert is the recipient of numerous State Department performance awards, including a Presidential Meritorious Service Award and the National Security Council’s Distinguished Service Award. A native of New York, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She speaks Arabic.
Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, Candidate for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Peru
Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Career Minister, currently serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State, where she also led the Department’s Operations Center. Previously, she served as Chargé d’Affairs, ad interim, at the US Embassy in Singapore. Previously, she was Minister Counselor for Public Diplomacy at the US Embassy in Mexico City, Deputy Chief of Mission in Bamako, Mali, and Senior Deputy Director in the Office of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Other assignments include Tunis, Tunisia; the American Mission to the United Nations in New York; and Monterrey, Mexico. A recent recipient of a Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, Syptak-Ramnath has also received numerous State Department awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy and five Senior Foreign Service Performance Awards. A native of Texas, Syptak-Ramnath is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and also completed a fellowship in executive leadership with the International Women’s Forum (IWF). Before joining the Foreign Service, she was an officer in the US Navy. She speaks Spanish and French.
Dorothy Camille Shea, Candidate for Deputy Representative of the United States of America at the United Nations, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and the Deputy Representative of the United States of America in the Security Council of the United Nations also as Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during her term of service as Deputy Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations
Dorothy Shea, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Minister Counselor class, currently serves as the US ambassador to Lebanon. Before that, she served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, as the Deputy Chief of Staff at the then US Consulate General in Jerusalem, and as Director of the Office of Assistance for Asia and the Middle East in the Agency of Population, Refugees. Among her other assignments, Shea was a Pearson Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Political/Economic Counselor at the US Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, and a Political Officer at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. She also served as Director for Democracy and Human Rights at the National Security Council, and Special Assistant to the Special Envoy for War Crimes Issues in the Department of State. Shea earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree from Georgetown University, and a second master’s degree from the National War College. She speaks French and Arabic.
Demetrios L. Kouzoukas, Candidate for Member of the Supplemental Health Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, and the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Insurance Board of Trustees
Demetrios L. Kouzoukas has deep experience in every part of healthcare. He is a partner at the Team8 Health project foundry, a member of the Board of Directors of Clover Health, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Health Policy. Kouzoukas previously served as the Chief Executive of the Medicare program at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In that role, he worked with patients, policymakers, and others to improve health care in the United States, as well as testifying before Congress. Prior to joining CMS, Kouzoukas was a senior executive at UnitedHealthcare. He also served as Principal Associate Deputy Secretary and as Deputy General Counsel of the US Department of Health and Human Services, with responsibilities across the Department’s portfolio. He built practices focused on new health care regulations and business models at two law firms. In addition, he represented the public as an expert in public administration and health benefits as an appointee to the Administrative Conference of the United States.
