Julie Jiyoon Chung has been nominated as the new US Ambassador to Sri Lanka by US President Joe Biden, the White House reported.
Chung is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and class of Minister-Counselor, while she is also the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
She was previously Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs at the Department and has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and as the Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.
Earlier, Chung was Chief of Staff to the Transition Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. She has also served at the U.S. embassies in Colombia, Vietnam, and Japan, and the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China.
She is a Pickering Fellow. Chung earned a B.A. at the University of California-San Diego and an M.A. at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary’s Distinguished Honor Award. Chung speaks Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Khmer. (NewsWire)