Vincentian is US Ambassador to UN

A national of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been nominated to be Ambassador of the United States to the Office of the United Nations (UN) and other International Organizations in Geneva.{{more}}

Betty E. Boyea-King, who served as the United States Representative to the Economic and Social Council of the UN under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, was nominated last week by President Barack Obama.

King, who is originally from Byera, is the sister of local businessmen Ken and Keith Boyea and Stilly Fraser and hotelier Ann Joshua.

While on the Economic and Social Council of the UN, King worked on human rights, children, development, aging and population issues. She was the principal U.S. negotiator on the Millennium Development Goals.

Ambassador King has an extensive background in philanthropy, having served as the Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, the Senior Advisor to the CEO of the California Endowment in Los Angeles, CA, and an advisor to the Atlantic Philanthropies in New York. She was the Deputy Commissioner of Mental Health in the District of Columbia, the Executive Director of the Southwest Society on Aging, the Director of the Arkansas Department on Aging and an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas.

She currently serves on the boards of Refugees International, the United Nations Association of the United States, Phoenix House, and on the Advisory Board of the Annenberg School of Public Diplomacy.

King earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, a Master’s degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and was a National Humanities Fellow at Harvard University.