Biden’s nomination of new Ambassador to Armenia sent to Senate

The White House has sent a number of nominations and withdrawals to the Senate.

US President Joe Biden earlier nominated Kristina A. Kvien, of California to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Armenia.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Kvien serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Kyiv. She was previously Chargé d’Affaires ad interim from 2020-2022. Prior to that, she served as Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France and as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. In both Paris and Bangkok, she served more than one year as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission. She also served as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in London.

Earlier in her career, Kvien was detailed to the National Security Council in Washington, D.C. as Director for EU, Ukraine and Belarus affairs. Other overseas assignments include the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia; the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels; and the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. Domestic assignments include the Office of European and Regional Affairs, and the Office of Central European Affairs, both in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs.

Kvien, a native of California, holds a BA from Occidental College and an MS from the U.S. Army War College. She is a recipient of multiple State Department performance awards and speaks Russian and French.