Joe Biden names Indian-American Uzra Zeya as Under Secretary at State Department

US Presidentelect Joe Biden has named Uzra Zeya an IndianAmerican diplomat who quit her State Department job in protest against the outgoing administrations alleged racial and sexist bias as his Under Secretary for Civilian Security Democracy and Human RightsConfirming the development on Saturday night Zeya tweeted In my 25years as a diplomat I learned that Americas greatest strength is the power of our example diversity amp democratic ideals I will uphold and defend these values if confirmed as Under Secretary for Civilian Security Democracy and Human RightsThank you Presidentelect Biden for centering democracy and human rights in US foreign policy and the opportunity to serve the American people once more alongside the heroic women and men at the State Department Its the honour of a lifetime to be among such allstar nominees she addedZeya who has more than two decades of experience with the Department of State and has expertise in Near East South Asian Europe human rights and multilateral affairs was nominated on January 16 The American Bazaar reportedZeya will be a champion for putting universal rights and strengthening democracy at the centre of our efforts to meet the challenges of the 21st century the Biden transition team said while announcing her nominationZeya who joined the US Foreign Service in 1990 left the State Department in 2018 alleging that Outgoing President Donald Trumps administration was bent on reversing decades of gains made by minorities and women under secretaries like Colin Powell and Hillary ClintonIn an article published by Politico she wrote that a quieter trend unfolded under thenSecretary of State Rex Tillerson the exclusion of minorities from top leadership positions in the State Department and embassies abroadIn her nearly threedecadelong stint at the State Department Zeya served in a number of roles including as Charge dAffaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy in Paris from 2014 to 2017 as Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor from 2012 to 2014 and as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State from 2011 to 2012She has served as US diplomat in capitals such as New Delhi Muscat Damascus Cairo and KingstonZeya joins a long list of IndiaAmericans appointed by Biden as members of his administrationMost recently Sameera Fazili who traces her familys roots to Kashmir was appointed as Deputy Director National Economic Council while health policy expert Vidur Sharma was named as the testing adviser on Bidens Covid19 Response TeamOn January 14 the Biden transition team announced the nomination of two IndianAmericans Sonia Aggarwal as the climate policy adviser and Garima Verma as the Digital Director for the Presidentelects wifeOther key IndianAmerican nominees include Neera Tanden who will be the Director of the Office of Management and Budget SurgeonGeneral Vivek Murthy Assistant Press Secretary Vedant Patel Director of speechwriting Vinay Reddy and Gautam Raghavan the Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential PersonnelAt the powerful National Security Council the nominees are Tarun Chhabra Senior Director for Technology and National Security Sumona Guha Senior Director for South Asia and Shanthi Kalathil Coordinator for Democracy and Human RightsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever