Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has appointed Ellie Cohanim, a former deputy U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the mission announced on Tuesday.

Raised in New York, Cohanim was born in Tehran but fled Iran with her family following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the escalating persecution of Iran’s Jewish community. During President Donald Trump’s first administration, she helped lead U.S. efforts to combat antisemitism and worked on initiatives supporting the Abraham Accords.

“Ellie’s story is the American story,” Waltz said. “Her family fled persecution in Iran, built a life in New York, and she has spent her career looking for ways to serve America, fighting for freedom, standing with the persecuted, and calling out antisemitism wherever it hides.”

“That is exactly the kind of conviction and courage we need at the United Nations,” he added.

Before joining the U.S. mission, Cohanim was a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum and served on the Trump-Vance presidential transition’s national security and U.S. State Department team. She has written and spoken extensively on Iran, the Middle East, religious freedom, global antisemitism and an America First foreign policy.

She is fluent in Farsi and Hebrew and is familiar with Arabic.