Kathryn Stevens is new USAID director to Bangladesh

The United States government has appointed Kathryn Stevens as the new mission director of USAID to Bangladesh.

She was sworn in by the agency’s Administrator Samantha Power in Washington, DC on Wednesday, Earl Miller, the US ambassador in Dhaka, said in a tweet on Thursday.

Stevens was serving as acting deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning, overseeing Strategic and Program Planning and the Program Office.

She previously served as deputy assistant administrator for Agency Internal Communications in the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs.

She is a Senior Foreign Service Officer with nearly 25 years of experience with USAID as a Democracy Officer, Program Officer, and Deputy Mission Director in Russia, India, and Afghanistan.

“What Kathryn realized is that despite the grim headlines we read about the state of the world, development is often the source of the good news,” Power said in a speech before administering the oath.

“Lives saved. People healed. Rights secured. The real improvements in people’s lives.”

She said despite many obstacles like climate change, COVID-19 pandemic and Rohingya refugee crisis, Bangladesh remains committed to becoming an upper middle-income country within 10 years.

“They will have no better partner in reaching that goal than Kathryn,” Power added, recounting the background of the newly appointed USAID mission director.

Stevens holds an MA in Russian Studies from Georgetown University and an AB in History from Duke University. She is from Fort Worth, Texas.

Ambassador Miller and M Shahidul Islam, Bangladesh ambassador to the US, also attended the oath-taking ceremony.