UN appoints Biden aide as UNICEF director
The United Nations announced today, Friday, the appointment of Katherine Russell, an assistant to US President Joe Biden, as the next executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a United Nations spokesman said.
Russell is currently Director of the Office of Personnel Affairs in the US Presidency and Assistant to the US President.
"Ms. Russell is taking this role, bringing with her decades of experience developing innovative policies to empower disadvantaged communities across the world," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Biden said Russell was "exceptionally well placed" to lead UNICEF.
"We will miss Cathy. But our loss is UNICEF's gain," he added.
The United Nations said that the Contact Ambassador Extraordinary worked for women's issues in the world in the US State Department in the former administration of President Barack Obama.
A UN spokesman said in July that outgoing Executive Director Henrietta Fore planned to step down to focus on a family health issue.
Since UNICEF's founding in 1946, Americans have served as the organization's executive director.
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