President Biden Announces Key Diplomatic Nominees

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key diplomatic roles in his administration: 

• Michael Adler, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of South Sudan
• John Godfrey, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of the Sudan

Michael Adler, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of South Sudan

Michael Adler is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, with over three decades of experience. Most recently, he has served on the National Security Council (NSC) staff as the Deputy Senior Director for South Asia and before that, the Director for Afghanistan. Before joining the NSC staff, Adler served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs at the State Department. He also held assignments in the State Department as Director of the Office of Afghanistan Affairs, Director of the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in the Bureaus of Political Military Affairs and Near Eastern Affairs. His overseas assignments have included service as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassies in Lebanon and Kuwait, as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, and Qatar. Adler earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Pomona College and a Master’s Degree from Stanford University. 

John Godfrey, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of the Sudan

John T. Godfrey, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, is currently the Acting Counterterrorism Coordinator and the Acting Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in the Counterterrorism Bureau at the U.S. Department of State. Previously, he was the Principal Deputy Coordinator in the Counterterrorism Bureau and before that, the Bureau’s Deputy Coordinator for Regional and Multilateral Affairs. Godfrey has served as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission and Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State. Godfrey’s other assignments include serving as Arms Control Counselor to the U.S. Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna, as Deputy Political Counselor (Northern Affairs) at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and as Political and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya. Earlier in his career, he served as Political and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan and as a Political/Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria. Godfrey earned a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Master’s Degree in Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan. He speaks Arabic.