The U.S. State Department has named Josh Neufeld, Ambassador of Free Expression.  Neufeld is the writer of author of A.D.: New Orleans After The Deluge which chronicled his work with the Red Cross post Katrina.  His role will send him on a three week tour of North Africa and the Middle East where he’ll show off “cultural freedoms of American society.”

Neufeld told the Washington Post:

The State Department invited me “specifically because of the Katrina book, which is blatantly so critical of the government,” Neufeld tells Comic Riffs of his comics reportage. “The program brings in cultural figures who disseminate [this message] — the State Department is proud of that freedom of expression. … They bring me over as a statement of how our civil society welcomes voices of dissent in all forms.”

Congrats!