Trump intends to appoint Kurdish woman as Ambassador to Bulgaria

"Ms. Mustafa, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, is currently the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal," said the White House, in a press release.

Mustafa began her tour in Lisbon in 2016. She previously served as Political Minister Counselor in New Delhi, India, as an Advisor in the Officer of the VP at the White House, and as Deputy Director of the Office of Afghanistan in the State Department.

Mustafa, 46, was born in Erbil. She and her family were political refugees and were resettled when Mustafa was a year old to Minot, North Dakota, where she grew up.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, studying national security and the Middle East, and graduated with a Masters of Public Affairs from Princeton University.

 

After university, Mustafa joined the Foreign Service in 1999, serving in Athens, Beirut, and Washington, D.C.

 

She became the Coalition Provisional Authority Governorate Coordinator for Nineveh, based in Mosul, where she managed a team of US Service officers, military officers and contractors, as well as overseeing the US Agency for International Development contractors. 

She is the recipient of the Matilda W. Sinclaire Award for Excellence in Foreign Language, the announcement said.

 

She speaks nine languages, including Arabic, Russian, Hindi, and Farsi, according to the White House.