WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated Samantha Power, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Biden also announced that he has “elevated the position to become a member of the National Security Council,” which serves to advise the president on national security and foreign policies.

In choosing Power as his nominee for USAID administrator, Biden cited her leadership addressing crises around the world. The role oversees the agency administering foreign assistance to countries recovering from disaster and those trying to escape poverty, while advancing the U.S.’s foreign policy goals.

“Power will rally the international community and work with our partners to confront the biggest challenges of our time — including COVID-19, climate change, global poverty, and democratic backsliding,” Biden’s transition team said in a statement.

“A crisis-tested public servant and diplomat, Ambassador Power has been a leader in marshaling the world to resolve long-running conflicts, respond to humanitarian emergencies, defend human dignity, and strengthen the rule of law and democracy,” it added.

Power, a longtime human rights advocate, served as U.S. ambassador to the UN under former Democratic President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden from 2013 to 2017.

Power, 50, also served as a White House national security staffer under Obama from 2009 to 2013. A former journalist, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her book “A Problem from Hell,” a study of U.S. failure to prevent genocide.