Trump announces new US ambassador to PNG

National

CALIFORNIAN Erin Elizabeth McKee has been appointed as the new US Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
She succeeds Catherine Ebert-Gray who served a three-year term that included Papua New Guinea’s historic hosting of the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders’ Summit last November.
Her appointment was announced by US President Donald Trump.
McKee, pictured, was a career member of the senior foreign service class of minister-counselor, who is currently the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director in Indonesia.
She previously served as senior deputy assistant administrator and chief human capital officer in the USAID office of human capital and talent management, and senior deputy assistant administrator for the bureau of policy, planning, and learning at USAID headquarters in Washington.
McKee had also served at USAID missions in Kazakhstan, Iraq, Peru, Bolivia, Israel and Russia.
She earned a degree at the University of California and a masters degree from the University of Washington. She speaks Russian, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia.
The US Embassy in Port Moresby looks forward to welcome McKee to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.