Goli Ameri
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Goli Ameri (in Persian:گلی عامری nee Goli Yazdi, born September 26, 1956) is an Iranian-American businesswoman who ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives from Oregon. She is also a former delegate to the United Nations. A Republican, she was born in Tehran, Iran.
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[edit] Life
She first came to the United States when she was 17, in order to get an education at Stanford University. There, she received her B.A. in Communications and French Literature and, later, her master's degree in Communications. She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. At Stanford, she met and later married Jim Ameri, a real-estate investor. She permanently settled in the United States after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and became a United States citizen in 1989.
She is president of eTinium, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. She has two sons.
[edit] 2004 Campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives
In 2004, she handily defeated moderate, small businessman Tim Phillips and conservative Jason Meshell by a 2-1 margin each to become the official nominee of the Republican Party for Oregon's 1st district seat in the House of Representatives and challenged three-term incumbent Democrat David Wu. Her attempt to become a member of Congress was a subject of admiration and discussion in Iran and around the world.
Ameri's campaign gained a great deal of attention from political insiders in Washington, D.C. because of her fast-paced fundraising skills. She was ranked by the Federal Elections Commission as the number-one Congressional challenger candidate in the country in total dollars raised for the 2004 primary and general elections cycles. [1]
The contest between her and Wu also received some national attention when, late in the campaign, Wu admitted that he had been disciplined for attempted sexual assault of a female classmate while he was a student at Stanford in 1976. Ameri, though reluctant initially to focus on the issue, heavily pushed it in the closing days of her campaign. The issue apparently had little impact on the result, as Wu garnered 58% of the vote, compared to Ameri's 38% (and 4% for Dean Wolf, the Constitution Party Candidate). [2]
[edit] Diplomatic Service
Ameri was later appointed by George W. Bush as one of three public members of the United States' delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which meets annually in Geneva, Switzerland. Ameri has also been invited to speak at events on Middle East issues nationwide, including a testimony before the United States Senate.
In the summer of 2005, President Bush appointed Ameri as the head of the United States' delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, which is headquartered in New York City. She was sworn-in by U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton in late September, 2005 and served until the end of the session in December. She was confirmed by the United States Senate for this position on May 26, 2006. [3]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- eTinium, Inc., her company
- An All-American Race in Oregon-From NPR
- Official Election Results (PDF Format - Adobe Acrobat needed)
- Speech on Women's Rights Before UN Human Rights Commission (PDF)
- "Ameri pummels Wu over incident" Portland Tribune October 22, 2004, retrieved December 10, 2005
- FEC Fundraising Rankings for 2004 Congressional Challengers (PDF), slightly out-of-date, as it lists Ameri as #2, FEC filings from the campaign show almost $2.2 million raised overall, making her #1
