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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release September 17, 1999
        PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES MARY CARLIN YATES AS AMBASSADOR TO
                          THE REPUBLIC OF BURUNDI

     The President announced today his intent to nominate Mary Carlin Yates

to be Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi.

Ms. Mary Carlin Yates, a native of Portland, Oregon, is a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, who began her diplomatic career in 1980. Her most recent assignment was in U.S. Embassy, Paris as Senior Cultural Attache preceded by a tour as Press Attache for Ambassador Pamela Harriman. Her prior assignments included Public Affairs Officer and Political Officer in Zaire; Office Director of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Bureau's Public Affairs Office at the Department of State; Assistant Information Officer and Spokesperson for the U.S./Philippine Military Bases Talks in the Philippines; and in Korea as Branch Public Affairs Officer in Kwangju. Her languages are French and Korean. She has earned the USIA Lois Roth Award for Excellence in Information and Cultural Diplomacy, three Superior Honor Awards and a Meritorious Honor Award.

Ms. Yates earned her B.A. in English from Oregon State University; a Masters in Comparative East West Humanities from New York University (NYU), where she pursued doctoral studies in Asian Affairs. She is married to a fellow Foreign Service Officer, John Melvin Yates currently serving as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon and concurrently to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

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