A senior official at the State Department tasked with reorganizing the agency has left the position just three months after she was appointed to the position.
Bloomberg News was first to report Maliz Beams’ departure from her role as counselor on Monday night, and several outlets later confirmed that she has resigned. Deputy chief of staff Christine Ciccone will take over Beams’ efforts to restructure the agency, per Bloomberg News.
Beams’ resignation follows acknowledgement from the State Department that the plans to restructure the agency have caused morale to plummet.
“Admittedly, the department could do a better job of communicating every single step along the way of the redesign process,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said earlier in November. “There is a morale issue and the department realizes that we need to say more.”
The State Department also had to defend its plans to reorganize the agency in a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee following a letter from senators. The lawmakers expressed concern about Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s staffing decisions, writing that his staffing patterns “threaten to undermine the long-term health and effectiveness of American diplomacy.”
