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Senate Confirms Samantha Power as USAID Administrator
April 29, 2021
Washington Business Dynamics (WBD) is proud to support our client, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on the confirmation of Samantha Power as its Administrator.
Power will lead the Agency forward with her extensive background in foreign policy, having served as the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013-2017 during the Obama Administration. In that role, she brought her vision and diplomatic direction to various negotiations, including the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2015.
As Administrator of USAID, Power will be a member of the White House’s National Security Council (NSC), a new position for the Administrator under the Biden Administration that elevates the priorities of international development both domestically and internationally on the policy level. The combination of her expertise in navigating foreign affairs with USAID’s long standing, direct knowledge of some of the world’s most fragile regions will likely result in a fresh approach to international development.
Power returned to her alma mater, Harvard University, in 2017 where she taught at both the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School as the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy and the William D. Zabel ’61 Professor of Practice in Human Rights. In 2019, Power released her memoir, The Education of an Idealist, to critical acclaim. In her book, she poignantly wrote about her life, starting as a young immigrant girl arriving in the US, then working as a war correspondent, to taking her place as a member of President Obama’s cabinet. Power has a first-hand knowledge of human rights issues, and inter-state conflict which she will undoubtedly bring to her new position in creating a more secure world.
At WBD, we are excited to continue to support USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Support (PSE) at USAID/Washington’s Bureau of Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI). Our team eagerly looks forward to Samantha Power excelling as Administrator of USAID as we work with the Agency to achieve its private sector engagement goals.