27389: Wharram (news) Arizona native nominated for Haiti ambassador post (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram

AZcentral.com

Billy House

Reach the reporter at billy.house@arizonarepublic.com or at 1-(202)
906-8136.


Arizona native nominated for Haiti ambassador post

Jan. 30, 2006 12:00 AM

An Arizona woman who has been a career member of the State Department's
Foreign Service took a step closer Wednesday to becoming the U.S. ambassador
to Haiti.

Janet Ann Sanderson, who lives in California but lists Tucson as her
hometown, appeared for her confirmation hearing on Thursday before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., presided.

No date has been set for a full vote by the committee, which if it approves
Sanderson's nomination by President Bush, would send her name to the entire
Senate.

Sanderson previously served as ambassador to Algeria from 2000 to 2003. Her
résumé includes other experience in the Middle East, including stints in
Jordan, Kuwait and Cairo. She most recently served as the "diplomat in
residence" at the Career Center at the University of California-Berkeley.

She would succeed James Foley, who finished his tenure as ambassador to
Haiti in August.

Sanderson's nomination to the Haiti post comes as political instability
continues to plague the island country, the Western Hemisphere's poorest
nation.