TIRANA, July 4 – US President Donald Trump intends to appoint Kathleen Ann Kavalec as the new US Ambassador to Albania, according to a White House announcement on Tuesday.
Kavalec, from California, currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the European and Eurasian Affairs Office at the US State Department, and has over thirty years of experience as a diplomat.
Formerly, Kavalec served as Director for Russian Affairs at the same Bureau. Prior to that, she was the Deputy Chief of Mission and Deputy Permanent Delegate at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris (2010-2013).
From 2009-2010, Ms. Kavalec was the Deputy Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia. She also served from 2008-2009 as the Director of Conflict Prevention in the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization
Mrs. Kavalec holds an A.B. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and has a Master’s Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
She is fluent in Russian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Ukrainian and will be replacing Mr. Donald Lu, who has been serving as US Ambassador to Albania since late 2014.
