The President of the United States of America, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has announced a Presidential Delegation to the Republic of Liberia to attend the Bicentennial Celebrations in Monrovia, Liberia on February 14, 2022.
According to the White House, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Honorable Linda Thomas-Greenfield will lead the delegation. Ambassador Greenfield, who is believed to have a Liberian ancestry, was once United States Ambassador to Liberia.
Other members of delegation include Honorable Michael A. McCarthy, United States Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia and Honorable Dana Banks, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Africa, National Security Council, the White House said.
Others are Mr. Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Rev. Dr. Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, Bishop of the Fifth Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Chair of the Governing Board, National Council of Churches in the United States, the statement said.
“This marks the arrival of the first Free Black Americans to Providence Island in 1822, which led to the establishment of the City of Monrovia, and in 1847, the Republic of Liberia,” the statement reads.
Liberia has been preparing to commemorate 200 years of the first arrival of free slaves from America who laid the foundation of Liberia that became the first independent Republic on the continent of Africa.
Meanwhile, the Government of the Republic of Liberia says all is now set for the celebration on February 14, 2022 that begins at the SKD Sports Complex in Paynesville City, outside Monrovia.
About Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
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.
Acknowledgement: Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield profile was copied from the United States Mission to the United Nations Website
