Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed McAuliffe to the State Department with a tweet that said she would advance its “top policy priorities through private sector collaboration.”
McAuliffe, whose position will be based in Washington, declined to comment through a spokesman.
In her new role, McAuliffe will lead a team to identify areas of potential collaboration with a host of U.S.- and foreign-based organizations — including businesses and nonprofits as well as state, municipal and tribal governments, and civil society, faith-based and academic entities, according to the announcement.
Her goal will be to rally those organizations to support the Biden administration’s foreign policy objectives on matters such as combating climate change and corruption, addressing global migration and strengthening global supply chains, the announcement said.
McAuliffe was a trailblazing first lady of Virginia while her husband, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, served as governor from 2014 to 2018. Terry McAuliffe, prevented by Virginia’s constitutional ban on back-to-back gubernatorial terms from immediately running for reelection, sought a comeback last year but lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin.
While fulfilling the traditional, largely ceremonial role of first lady — hosting receptions and making improvements to the historic Executive Mansion — McAuliffe was the first to lobby heavily for legislation and to work out of the Patrick Henry Building, alongside the governor and cabinet secretaries.
She made childhood nutrition a top priority, leading a successful push for Virginia schools to serve 13 million more breakfasts a year. She also helped persuade the legislature to establish a system to provide more funding to school districts serving children of military personnel, served on a task force that tackled a backlog of untested rape kits and helped hash out a last-minute compromise between the governor and Republicans on firearms legislation.
Read More: Former Va. first lady Dorothy McAuliffe named to State Department post
