New US Ambassador Nancy Powell arrives in India

New Delhi, US Ambassador designate to India Nancy Powell arrived here last night to take charge of the high profile office in this country which is scripting a new relationship with the United States.
The First woman Ambassador of her country to India is, however, no stranger to this south Asian nation, having served in important capacities here earlier.
Ms Powell has been working as the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources in Washington before she was designated for India.
She will be the second representative of the Obama Administration in India. Her predecessor Timothy J Roemer had announced his resignation in April last year. Since then Mr Peter Bureligh had been holding the charge.
Earlier, Ms Powell had served in the American Consulate in Kolkata and the US Embassy in New Delhi as a diplomat from 1992 to 1995.
Before embarking for India, she had said some of her priorities in her new assignment would be expansion of trade and defence ties with India.
"The Americans and Indians who work at the embassies and consulates are engaged in promoting economic growth in both the countries and expanding our defence relationship, addressing common global threats and encouraging cooperation that can benefit our countrymen and women," she had said in a video released by the US Embassy in ten Indian Languages.
Ms Powell had also said that she was impressed how much deeper and broader Indian-American relations had become and how much greater role India now played in addressing world's challenges.
Ms Powell has also served as US Ambassador to Pakistan, Ghana, and Uganda. She was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangladesh and Togo, Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, consular officer in Kathmandu. Her other overseas assignments include Islamabad and Ottawa.
Ms Powell was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1970.