24 Facts About Marie Yovanovitch

Marie Louise "Masha" Yovanovitch was born on November 11,1958 and is a Canadian-American former diplomat and retired senior member of the United States Foreign Service.

Marie Yovanovitch served in multiple State Department posts, including Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, US Ambassador to Armenia, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and Ambassador to Ukraine.

Marie Yovanovitch's removal preceded a July 2019 phone call by Trump in which he attempted to pressure Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Biden.

Marie Yovanovitch testified in several House committee depositions in the inquiry.

Marie Yovanovitch is the daughter of Mikhail Yovanovitch and Nadia Yovanovitch, who fled the Soviet Union and later the Nazis.

Marie Yovanovitch was born in Canada, moved to Connecticut at age three, and became a naturalized American citizen at age eighteen.

Marie Yovanovitch graduated from Kent School in Connecticut in 1976; her parents were longtime foreign language teachers at the school.

Marie Yovanovitch earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and Russian studies from Princeton University in 1980.

Marie Yovanovitch was appointed US Ambassador to Armenia on August 4,2008; she presented her credentials on September 22,2008, and remained in this post until June 9,2011.

Marie Yovanovitch pushed Armenian authorities to give fair treatment to Armenians arrested in post-election protests in 2008.

In that position, Marie Yovanovitch was a key State Department headquarters contact for US diplomats in Europe, working with, among others, US Ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein, regarding issues such as US missile defense in Poland.

Marie Yovanovitch received the department's Senior Foreign Service Performance Award six times and the Superior Honor Award five times.

Marie Yovanovitch was promoted to the rank of Career Minister in 2016.

Marie Yovanovitch was announced as the nominee for US ambassador to Ukraine on May 18,2016, to replace Geoff Pyatt; the nomination was sent to the Senate the next day, and confirmed by voice vote of the Senate on July 14,2016.

Marie Yovanovitch was respected within the national security community for her efforts to encourage Ukraine to tackle corruption and during her tenure sought to strengthen the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which had been created to bolster efforts to fight corruption in Ukraine; these efforts earned Marie Yovanovitch some enemies within the country.

Marie Yovanovitch returned to Washington, DC on April 25, with her recall becoming public knowledge on May 7, and her mission as ambassador being terminated on May 20,2019.

Marie Yovanovitch's abrupt ousting shocked and outraged career State Department diplomats.

Former senior US diplomats Philip Gordon and Daniel Fried, who served as assistant secretaries of state for European and Eurasian Affairs and as National Security Council staffers under presidents of both parties, praised Marie Yovanovitch and condemned Trump's "egregious mistreatment of one of the country's most distinguished ambassadors," writing that this had demoralized the US diplomatic corps and undermined US foreign policy.

Trump subsequently said she was "no angel" and falsely claimed that Marie Yovanovitch had refused to hang his portrait.

On October 11,2019, Marie Yovanovitch gave closed-door deposition testimony before the House Oversight and Reform, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees.

The State Department sought to stop Marie Yovanovitch from testifying before Congress, in line with Trump's policy of refusing to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

On November 15,2019, Marie Yovanovitch testified during the public impeachment hearings.

Marie Yovanovitch's boss disparaged and intimidated her not after, but during her testimony.

Marie Yovanovitch is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.