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USAID Announces New Mission Director to Russia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2007
Press Office: 202-712-4320
Public Information: 202-712-4810
www.usaid.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator, Henrietta Fore, administered the oath of office to Leon S. Waskin Jr. as Mission Director to Russia in a ceremony at USAID's headquarters here today.

Waskin is a career Foreign Service Officer and most recently served as Mission Director of the USAID Mission in Afghanistan. During his tenure in Afghanistan, he built on the successes of his predecessors by dramatically expanding the visibility of USAID's role in the counter-insurgency effort, re-doubled USAID's efforts to jump-start the massive Kajaki Dam project and re-programmed some $150 million to hasten the delivery of much-needed electricity to the capital city of Kabul.

"Mr. Waskin's negotiation and consensus-building skills, and expertise in working in partnerships - which he gained through many years of service abroad and in Washington - will serve him and the USAID/Russia mission well." said Fore.

Waskin has also served in numerous USAID's missions around the world to include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nicaragua, Honduras, Madagascar and Mongolia. As Assistant Mission Director to Madagascar, Mr. Waskin coordinated the U.S. response to three devastating cyclones which hit that country in spring 2000. Working with USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the U.S. military, he helped bring immediate relief to some 50,000 people affected by the storms. He further led the design of a reconstruction program in that country that helped restore the productive economies of the affected areas and put in place disaster mitigation measures to help prevent such devastation in the future. In recognition of this work, the President of Madagascar decorated him as a "Knight of the Legion of Honor," an award normally reserved for departing Ambassadors.

Waskin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and earned his Master's degree of Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is a two-time recipient of USAID's Superior Honor Award. Mr. Waskin is married and has three children.

For more information on USAID and its programs in Russia, please visit www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/countries/ru/.

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for nearly 50 years.

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