Randi Charno Levine to be new US ambassador to Portugal | USA
A philanthropist and cultural diplomat Randi Charno Levine will be the new US ambassador to Portugal, according to a communiqué published on the official website of the White House, becoming the second woman to head the US diplomatic representation in Lisbon.
Randi Charno Levine’s “nomination intention” was announced by US President Joe Biden on Friday, along with other names of officials appointed to several “key positions”.
Randi Charno Levine is presented by the White House as “an advocate of the arts and a leader in cultural diplomacy,” currently serving as commissioner and member of the Executive Committee for Special Projects at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
“She is looking to maintain and expand the museum’s permanent collection, chaired the 2019 “Portrait of a Nation” gala and revitalized its corporate partnership program,” reads the statement.
Charno Levine is also a curator at the Meridian International Center in Washington, where she chairs the “Meridian Center for Cultural Diplomacy”, being responsible for “guiding and leading their international exchange programs, research development and strategic and commercial partnerships”.
The future US ambassador to Portugal is also curator of the New Museum in New York City and a member of the Museum’s Artemis Council, where she “supported women’s diversity and equality in the arts and promoted global dialogues during her trips to China , Italy, Peru, Portugal and Turkey”.
Published author, Charno Levine is a member of the “Friends of the Costume Institute” of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a member of the FACES board of the “Comprehensive Epilepsy Center” at New York University, having published her BA in journalism at the University of Missouri- Columbia.
After Elizabeth Bagley, who between 1994 and 1997 was the US ambassador to Portugal during the presidency of Bill Clinton, Randi Charno Levine will be the second woman to head the US diplomatic representation in Lisbon.
Levine succeeds George E. Glass, who left Lisbon in January with the end of the presidency of Donald Trump, who had appointed him, and since then the North American representation has been led by the chargé d’affaires Kristin Kane.