President Biden Announces Key Nominees

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as key leaders in his Administration:

• Jennifer D. Gavito, Nominee to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Libya
• Vanesa Soledad Simon, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts

Also today, the White House will begin renominating candidates whose nominations were returned to the President at the end of the first session of the 118^th Congress. Today’s transmission to the Senate will include 25 renominations. The White House will continue transmitting renominations to the Senate in the coming weeks and hopes the Senate will take action expeditiously.

Jennifer D. Gavito, Nominee to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Libya

Jennifer Gavito is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor. She most recently served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, Iran, Press and Public Diplomacy.  Prior to assuming that position, she served as the Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London and, before that, she was the U.S. Consul General in Munich, Germany. Gavito, a specialist on the Middle East, served previously as Deputy Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai; Director for Syria and Lebanon on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House; Deputy Director of the Maghreb Affairs Office in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs; Libya Desk Officer; and as head of the Economic/Commercial section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Among her other assignments, Gavito was Chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem and the Foreign Affairs Policy Advisor to the U.S. Africa Command’s Director for Plans and Policies (J5). Gavito earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from American University, Washington, D.C.

Vanesa Soledad Simon, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts

Vanesa Soledad Simon is an entrepreneur and artist who has innovated ways to use the arts in health for herself and others. She is the Founder and Program Director of Healing Through the Arts, which she piloted in 2017. This program works with an array of organizations to bring varied art modalities to communities facing health, environmental and historic traumas. It promotes the use of the arts in non-clinical ways to process stress for wellbeing and encourages participants to develop a creative practice in a supportive environment. Mariposa Arts, Simon’s company, utilizes strategic partnerships at the organizational, sponsor and community level with an entrepreneurial approach to community building that is human-centered and promotes belonging. 

Simon holds a Creative Catalyst Certificate, is a Certified Zentangle Instructor, holds a Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist certification and training for instructing Adults as Beginners from Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, has been trained in Creative Aging facilitation practices through Lifetime Arts, and is a Certified Facilitator for Open Studio Project method. 

As an artist, she has participated in exhibitions throughout Argentina, Barcelona, and New York City with an artist collective from Argentina and has exhibited locally in Delaware.  

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