Former US Ambassador in Sofia Nancy McEldowney has officially assumed her current position as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the State Department announced.

The Obama Administration asked Nancy McEldowney to terminate her stay in Bulgaria in advance and return to Washington to assume the new position.

Nancy McEldowney, who has an extensive diplomatic career with the US State Department, was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria in January, 2008 by President George W. Bush. She assumed her post in Sofia in August, 2008.

Nancy McEldowney graduated in 1976 from Clearwater High School in Florida and received her bachelor's degree from New College and her master's degrees from Columbia University and the National Defense University.

Previous posts include: Deputy chief of the United States Mission in Ankara, Turkey; Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon; and director of European Affairs on the National Security Council at the White House; and overseas posts including Baku, Azerbaijan; Bonn, Germany; and Cairo.

She is married to Tim Hayes, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot who flew F-5 and F-15 aircraft, and has two daughters - Jessica, 7, and Alyssa, 2.

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