U.S. President Bush intends to nominate Marie L. Yovanovitch, of Connecticut, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Armenia. Ms. Yovanovitch, a career member of the Foreign Service, currently serves as Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic. Prior to this, she served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the Department of State. Earlier in her career, she served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv. Ms. Yovanovitch received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University and her master's degree from the National War College.

An earlier attempt to nominate Amb. Richard Hoagland to replace Amb. Evans was blocked by Sen. Robert Menendez (Dem.-N.J.), to protest the dismissal of Amb. Evans and to object to Amb. Hoagland's poor choice of words in responding to Senators' questions on the validity of the Armenian Genocide.