Bureau for Asia Welcomes Ann Marie Yastishock as SR Deputy Assistant Admin. & Acting Assistant Admin

The Bureau for Asia is pleased to welcome Ann Marie Yastishock as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator and Acting Assistant Administrator.

Ann Marie Yastishock is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. She most recently served in Hanoi as USAID/Vietnam Mission Director from October 2020 to June 2022.

As part of the transition to the Biden-Harris Administration, Ms. Yastishock returned to Washington, from February to May 2021, to serve as the Chief Advisor to the Acting Administrator and Chief Operating Officer for USAID.

Prior to joining USAID/Vietnam, from 2018 to 2020, she served as the Acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Asia responsible for USAID missions and programs in East Asia and the Pacific. From 2015 to 2018, she oversaw USAID’s activities in South and Central Asia as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Asia.

From 2012 to 2015, she served as the Deputy Mission Director for the regional office of USAID covering Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and Cyprus. From August 2013 until March 2014, she served as the interim Deputy Mission Director for USAID/Burma. From March 2011 until arriving in Kyiv in 2012, she served as the Deputy Director of the USAID Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG).

Prior to her assignment as the DRG Deputy Director, she was the Senior Legal Advisor to USAID/Afghanistan, from November 2008 to November 2010. From 2002–2007, she served as the Resident Legal Advisor to Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. While in Georgia, she managed the Rule of Law portfolio for the Mission.

Prior to joining USAID in 2001, she worked as a Rule of Law Liaison for the American Bar Association/Central and East European Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) with the parliaments of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan and implemented programs with law students and legislative drafters in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Prior to going overseas, she served as the Deputy Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission and as a Research Analyst in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Environmental Resources Committee.

She is a graduate of Widener University School of Law with a J.D., and Penn State University with a B.S. in Economics. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.