THE WHITE HOUSE

                        Office of the Press Secretary 
                       (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts)
______________________________________________________________________ 
For Immediate Release                                September 2, 1997 

                PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES BARBARA K. BODINE AS 
             UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN

President Clinton announced today his intent to nominate Barbara K. Bodine, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service to be Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen.

Ms. Barbara K. Bodine, of California, began her career in Hong Kong. After language training in Taiwan and a tour as political-military officer in Bangkok, Ms. Bodine has spent her career working primarily in Southwest Asia and on the Arabian Peninsula. She has twice served in the Bureau of Near East Affairs' Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, once as Country Officer for the Yemens and Political-Military Officer for the peninsula, and later as Deputy Office Director. Ms. Bodine has also held assignments as Deputy Principal Officer, U.S. Interests Section, in Baghdad, Iraq, and was Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 1990. Following Kuwait, Ms. Bodine was the Associate Coordinator for Operation, Acting Coordinator for Counter terrorism, and the Dean of Professional Studies at the Department's Foreign Service Institute. Most recently, Ms. Bodine spent a year as the Director of East African Affairs.

Ms. Bodine earned a B.A. degree, magna cum laude, in Political Science and Asian Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Masters' degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts. She has also studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Department of State's Language Training Field Schools in Taiwan and Tunisia. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, AFSA, the Women's Foreign Policy Group and serves on the Board of Directors of the UCSB Alumni Association and the Advisory Council to the Program on Southwest Asian and Islamic Civilization Studies at the Fletcher School.

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