A Cabinet meeting yesterday nominated US-based academic Prof Mathilde Mukantabana as Rwanda’s ambassador to Washington, according to a communiqué from the meeting held at Village Urugwiro. Mukantabana (pictured) will replace James Kimonyo.The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi. The development follows last month’s changes in the diplomatic missions in the UK and India, which saw the two envoys swap roles with Williams Nkurunziza taken to London while Ernest Rwamucyo headed to New Delhi.Who is Mathilde Mukantabana?Mukantabana was born and raised in Rwanda before she moved to the United States to pursue her studies.She is a famed professor of history at Cosumnes River College (CRC) in Sacramento, California, and President of Friends of Rwanda Association (FORA), a non-profit American relief association.Under the aegis of FORA, she has organised numerous workshops and international conferences on post-Genocide experience.In the USA, Mukantabana is lauded not only an amazing instructor, but a great mobiliser of the Rwandan community in North America and her efforts to raise awareness about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is commended. The CRC awarded the Crystal Apple Award to Mukantabana at its annual Spring Convocation on January 13, 2012. Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting also approved that the responsibility of managing the country’s nursing and midwifery schools from the ministry of health to that of education.