President Biden Announces Key Nominations

WASHINGTON – Today President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate the following people for key roles:

• Beth Van Schaack, Nominee for Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice at the US State Department
• Michèle Taylor, candidate for United States Representative to the UN Human Rights Council with the rank of Ambassador during her tenure
• Martha Williams, Home Office Director of Fish and Wildlife Services nominee

Beth Van Schaack, Nominee for Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice, Department of State
Beth Van Schaack is Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Stanford Law School, where she teaches in the fields of international human rights, international criminal law and human trafficking, and was Executive Director of Human Rights and the Clinic for Conflict Resolution. She is also a faculty fellow at the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice. Before returning to academia, she was Assistant War Crimes Ambassador to the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice. In this capacity, she assisted the Secretary of State and the Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights in formulating US policies for prevention and accountability for mass atrocities such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. She also spent some time in private practice with Morrison & Foerster LLP and with the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Van Schaack is a graduate of Stanford University (BA); Yale Law School (JD); and Leiden University School of Law (PhD). Her dissertation, entitled Imagining Justice for Syria, has been published by Oxford University Press.

Michèle Taylor, candidate for the rank of Ambassador during her tenure as representative of the United States to the UN Human Rights Council
Michèle Taylor has worked in various functions to protect basic human and political rights. She is a board member of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and was chairman of the “Power to Inspire” and development chairman. Taylor, whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, was a member of the Committee on State Sponsored Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial, a member of the Committee on Conscience, and a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council. In addition, she held various roles for the North Carolina Outward Bound School for nearly two decades, serving on the board of directors and also as an instructor and course leader. Taylor earned her BA from Mills College and an MA from Boston University.

Martha Williams, Home Office Director of Fish and Wildlife Services nominee
Williams is currently the assistant chief executive officer of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Prior to her appointment, Williams served as the director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks from 2017-2020. There she assumed a leadership role that encompassed the diversity of Montana’s natural resources and the values ​​of outdoor recreation, which also moved the expectations and values ​​of the public towards the agency. Williams previously served as Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Montana’s Blewett School of Law and co-director of the university’s Land Use and Natural Resources Clinic. Williams’ appointment to the US Fish and Wildlife Service is a return to the Home Office, where she began her career as an associate lawyer for parks and wildlife advising the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Growing up on a farm in Maryland, Martha Williams learned to appreciate open land, water, wildlife and community. This passion led her to the wild places of the west and a career in which she nurtured a love of nature and stood up for the protection of natural resources. Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Montana School of Law. Williams is a hunter, angler, bird watcher, and outdoor enthusiast.

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