four of the state department's finest, philip goldberg, david hale, michelle sissen and dan smith. this is the highest and most prestigious rank in service, they should be proud. the american people, too, should be proud for them representing our country. they have all proven over many years of service that their outstanding diplomatic skills and leadership qualities are much needed and that they're delivering. they're an inspiration too. they're great leaders. i congratulate them all on behalf of all of my state department colleagues. this is a good step towards strengthening the state department's leadership, something i've put at the top of my priority set in my first, now, several months here. i know that american diplomacy is most agile and most effective when we have our entire team in place. we need to have that senior leadership team empowered. to that end, we do have some new leaders already making an impact. i mentioned david hale, my undersecretary for political affairs. we also have director kiron skinner who i have not mention before, she is a highly distinguished acad