President Barack Obama has announced his intention to nominate Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir for the post, according to a statement issued by the White House today.
If approved by the Senate, Lakhdhir, a Harvard graduate who once served in Indonesia, will replace current ambassador Joseph Y Yun, who has held the position since Oct 2013.
Lakhdhir is a career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Counsellor, and was the Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, from 2011 to 2015.
Her father Noor Lakhdhir was born in Mumbai. He studied in the US and later settled there.
She served as the US Consul General in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom from 2009 to 2011.
Prior to that, she worked in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs as the director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia from 2007 to 2009, and as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2005 to 2006.
She was a political officer at the US Embassy in Beijing, China from 2001 to 2005, and in year 2000, she served as a Pearson Fellow in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee and the House Financial Services Committee, Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee.
Lakhdhir, from 1998 to 2000, was the deputy coordinator of Taiwan Coordination Staff in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and from 1996 to 1998, a Line Officer in the Department’s Executive Secretariat.
She joined the Foreign Service in 1991, and has also served as a political officer in Indonesia and as consular officer in Saudi Arabia.
She received a bachelor degree from Harvard College and a master’s degree from the National War College.