President Biden Announces 17 Key Nominations, Two are Arab American
JUNE 23, 2021 STATEMENTS AND RELEASES
WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following 17 individuals to serve in key roles, including two Arab Americans:
- Ismael Ahmed, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Kinan Azmeh, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Michael Carpenter, Nominee for U.S. Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), with rank of Ambassador
- Claire Cronin, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ireland
- Jack Markell, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with rank of Ambassador
- Cindy Hensley McCain, Nominee for U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, with rank of Ambassador
- Homer Wilkes, Nominee for Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment, Department of Agriculture
- Raymond Limon, Nominee for Vice Chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board of Directors
- Max Vekich, Nominee for Member of the Federal Maritime Commission
- Stacey Brandenburg, Nominee for Trustee of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
- Robert Garcia, Nominee for Trustee of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
- Kamilah Forbes, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Christopher Morgan, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Huascar Medina, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Jake Shimabukuro, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Constance Williams, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
- Fiona Whelan Prine, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
Ismael Ahmed, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
Ismael Ahmed most recently served as the Associate Provost for Metropolitan Impact at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. In this position, Ahmed was responsible for connecting academic initiatives for 9,000 students and 540 full and part-time faculty with over 500 community, business, and governmental partners. Prior to that, he served in Governor Jennifer M. Granholm’s administration as Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, the state’s second-largest department. He co-founded the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in 1971 and was appointed executive director in 1983, growing it into a national human service and advocacy agency with affiliates in 24 cities.
The son of first-generation immigrants, Ahmed is co-founder of The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn and serves as an executive member of its advisory board. Since 1984, he has lead Detroit’s Concert of Colors – one of the largest world music festivals in the United States – which he co-curates and co-chairs. He also produces and hosts “This Island Earth” on WDET Public Radio Detroit, where he conducts multi-cultural music & arts programs with music and guests that represent culture from across the planet.
Kinan Azmeh, Nominee for Member of the National Council on the Arts
Originally from Damascus, Syria, Kinan Azmeh brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, composer, and improviser. Notable appearances include the Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN General Assembly, New York; the Royal Albert hall, London; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; Der Philharmonie, Berlin; the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; and in his native Syria at the opening concert of the Damascus Opera House.
He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic, and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others, and has shared the stage with such musical luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Marcel Khalife, John McLaughlin, Francois Rabbath Aynur and Jivan Gasparian.
Azmeh serves as artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players, a pan-Arab ensemble dedicated to contemporary music from the Arab world. He has also been playing with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2012, whose 2017 Grammy Award-winning album “Sing Me Home” features Azmeh as a clarinetist and composer. Azmeh is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School as a student of Charles Neidich and of both the Damascus High Institute of Music where he studied with Shukry Sahwki, Nicolay Viovanof and Anatoly Moratof, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Azmeh earned his doctorate degree in music from the City University of New York in 2013.
Compiled by Arab America
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