Sarah-Ann Lynch’s term as US Ambassador to Guyana comes to an end

Career diplomat Sarah-Ann Lynch’s term as United States Ambassador to Guyana has come to an end, with a farewell reception being hosted by the Embassy in Georgetown on Friday.
Lynch was confirmed by the US Senate on January 2, 2019, and sworn in on January 7, 2019, as Ambassador to Guyana. She presented her credentials in Guyana on March 13, 2019.
Lynch is expected to be replaced by Nicole Theriot, who was nominated for the position by President Joe Biden. However, the US senate has not voted to confirm the new nominee. Lynch will however continue to serve until her replacement arrives here.
Theriot graduated in 1983 from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s degree and in 1998 with a Master’s in International Relations from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

She is a career member of the senior foreign service and previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince Haiti, she served as Director for Immigration and Visa Security Council in the executive office of the President. She was also Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Overseas Citizens Service in the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
Theriot was also a Political Counsellor at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Principal Officer in Casablanca Morocco, and Bureau of Consular Affairs Supervisory Regional Consular Officer in Frankfurt, Germany, and many other overseas assignments. She is also the recipient of numerous state awards including a senior foreign service performance award.
Meanwhile, Lynch previously served as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator and acting Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Latin America and Caribbean Bureau. She is a career member of the senior foreign service, a graduate from Mount Holyoke College and holds Master’s degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the National War college. She also served with USAID from 1993 to 2018 and was posted overseas in Bangladesh, Peru, Afghanistan and Iraq where she was the USAID Mission Director in Baghdad. In Washington, she served in the Regional Bureaus of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance.

Lynch played a critical role in the development of Guyana since she took office and continues to build and strengthen bilateral relations between Guyana and the United States of America.
The US Ambassador had also played a keen role in securing Guyana’s democracy in the March 2020 General and Regional Elections by placing pressure on the previous APNU/AFC Administration to allow the smooth transition of the current elected Administration. (G11)