Sherman served as the under secretary of State for political affairs, the fourth-highest post at the State Department, during the Obama administration and was the lead U.S. negotiator on the nuclear deal with Iran. She also previously had stints as a counselor at the State Department and assistant secretary of State for legislative affairs.
She is currently the director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and a senior counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group.
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Biden also announced that Victoria Nuland will be nominated for the role of under secretary of State for political affairs. She previously served as assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs in the Obama administration.
Each of these individuals gained an early reputation for competence and collegiality. Nuland, a career Foreign Service officer, went on to serve in the Bush administration as foreign policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. Blinken went to work for Sen. Biden on the Foreign Relations Committee, while Sherman joined former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright s consultancy.
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This pattern is a familiar one. The politically connected come and go with the electoral tides. The career staff labor on from one administration to the next until, four or eight years later, the tide turns and some familiar faces reappear, often reentering government one or two steps above where they left.