Senate Foreign Relations approves Smith for USAID as Obama nominates Etim for Africa Bureau
August 10, 2015 |06:30 PM
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week approved President Barack Obama’s nomination of Gayle Smith to become administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development before the August recess, and Obama nominated Linda Etim to head the Africa Bureau.
USAID manages Feed the Future, the Obama administration’s signature international agricultural development program, and Feed the Future is most active in Africa.
The nomination of Smith, who serves on the White House National Security Council, had become embroiled in controversies over reproductive rights, according to media reports. A committee aide confirmed that Smith’s nomination was approved and that it has been sent to the Senate leadership for floor action.
Etim, nominated by Obama on August 5, is the deputy assistant administrator in the African Bureau at USAID, a position she has held since January 2012. In that position, she oversees the Office of Sudan and South Sudan Programs and the Office of East African Affairs.
From 2009 to 2012, Etim served on the National Security Council staff as director for Sudan, South Sudan, and East African Affairs, where she oversaw civil-military affairs, governance, economic growth and humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa.
According to the USAID website, Etim was the primary drafter of U.S. government strategies for Sudan and Somalia.
From 2007 to 2009, she worked as a senior intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. Before that, Etim worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency as an intelligence analyst from 2004 to 2007 and as an intelligence liaison from 2003 to 2004. She was an intelligence analyst for the Joint Staff from 2002 to 2003.
Etim received a bachelor of arts in African International Affairs, French and Portuguese from the University of Wisconsin.
