Mina Chang

A senior State Department official who appeared to have extravagantly padded her resume and to have touted a fake TIME magazine cover to bolster her standing has resigned, according to a letter obtained by CNN. Mina Chang, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, announced her decision on Monday, blaming a "character assassination based solely on innuendo" and a toxic State Department culture in her resignation letter. Chang, a political appointee with connections to Brian Bulatao, a senior State Department official and friend of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pointed to a "moral crisis" at the State Department and a "morally bankrupt leadership structure." NBC News first reported last week on the apparent gaps between Chang's resume and her experience, charging that she "has inflated her educational achievements and exaggerated the scope of her nonprofit's work." Ms. Chang serves as Chief Executive Officer of Linking the World, an international non-governmental organization utilizing innovative research tools to bridge the gap between practitioners and policymakers and curate broad public conversation about national security. Ms. Chang has extensive on the ground experience in proactive development and disaster relief in areas of conflict and instability, including: Afghanistan, the Philippines, Burma, Somalia, and Iraq, experiencing firsthand the toll conflict and instability take on vulnerable communities. Ms. Chang is an alumna of the Harvard Business School, a graduate of the United States Army War College National Security Seminar, a Harvard John F. Kennedy Senior Executive in National and International Security, and a former International Security Fellow at New America. Ms. Chang is published in Fortune, Foreign Policy Journal, Forbes, and The Hill. She has addressed assemblies at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the United Nations, the United States Department of Defense, and the United States Military Academy at West Point.