The United States announced a new ambassador to Rwanda Monday night. Erica J. Barks-Ruggles, a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, has been appointed to the position. She will be replacing current ambassador Donald W. Koran, who has held the post since Aug. 8, 2011. According to the United States government, Barks-Ruggles is currently the Consul General of the United States in South Africa, a post she has held since August 2011. Prior to her position in Cape Town, Barks-Ruggles was deputy to the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Washington, D.C. She has also served in several human rights and political-economic policy positions in the U.S. State Department since joining in 1991. Barks-Ruggles speaks and reads French and Norwegian. She is married to another member of the foreign service. Her appointment still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
