Samantha Power at the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas. Photo: Sergio Flores/Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated Samantha Power, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Why it matters: Biden's decision to bring Power, another veteran of the Obama years, into the administration is a reflection of his intent to revitalize foreign assistance as an instrument of soft power and to achieve humanitarian goals, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.
The big picture: Biden also named Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall as homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser on Wednesday.
- Sherwood served as the White House defense policy coordinator under the Obama administration, and the deputy assistant defense secretary for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia in the Clinton administration.
Go deeper: More background on Power