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U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced his nominees to serve as ambassadors to several countries, including Armenia.

He named Kristina A. Kvien as his nominee for new U.S. Ambassador to Armenia to replace Lynne Tracy who has been serving in Yerevan since 2019.

Kristina A. Kvien, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Kyiv. She was previously Chargé d’Affaires ad interim from 2020-2022. Prior to that, Kvien served as Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France and as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. In both Paris and Bangkok, she served more than one year as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission. She also served as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in London.

Earlier in her career, Kvien was detailed to the National Security Council in Washington, D.C. as Director for EU, Ukraine and Belarus affairs. Other overseas assignments include the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia; the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels; and the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. Domestic assignments include the Office of European and Regional Affairs, and the Office of Central European Affairs, both in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs. Kvien, a native of California, holds a BA from Occidental College and an MS from the U.S. Army War College. She is a recipient of multiple State Department performance awards and speaks Russian and French.