Arthur W. Lewis was a career foreign officer who served in diplomatic missions in Eastern Europe and Africa before retiring in 1987. He also played a significant role in expanding opportunities for racial and ethnic minorities in the American diplomatic corps. Before entering the Foreign … Read MoreArthur W. Lewis (1926-2019)
On July 26, 1977, President Jimmy Carter nominated William B. Jones as the United States Ambassador to Haiti. The U.S. Senate confirmed Jones and soon after he took up his post in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Born on May 2, 1928, to Bill and LaVelle Jones in … Read MoreWilliam B. Jones (1928- )
Howard Kent Walker is a military veteran, diplomat, and educator who was born on December 3, 1935 in Newport News, Virginia. His father was a high school chemistry and mathematics teacher and his mother a homemaker. Upon graduation from high school Walker enrolled at the … Read MoreHoward Kent Walker (1935- )
Horace G. Dawson, Jr. was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Botswana by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. After his confirmation by the U.S. Senate, he served in that post until 1983. Dawson was born in Augusta, Georgia, on January 30, 1926. He attended Lincoln University in … Read MoreHorace G. Dawson (1926- )
Born in Tinton Falls, New Jersey in 1957, Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1975. Thinking she might teach overseas, Bernicat earned a teaching credential in social sciences at the secondary level. Rather than … Read MoreMarcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat (1957- )
Elliott Percival Skinner, a leading late 20th Century anthropologist, also served as the United States ambassador to the Republic of Upper Volta (the West African country renamed itself Burkina Faso in 1984). Skinner was born on June 20, 1924 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. During … Read MoreElliott Percival Skinner (1924-2007)
Ruth V. Washington, a lifelong Republican, was appointed by President George Herbert Walker Bush as U.S. Ambassador to Gambia on November 21, 1989. Washington was a rare “political” appointee, meaning she was not a member of the U.S. Foreign Service for years before landing her … Read MoreRuth V. Washington (1921-1990)
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations, a Cabinet-level post in the President Joseph Biden Administration. Born in Baker, Louisiana circa 1952, Linda Thomas-Greenfield graduated from a segregated high school in 1970. The first in her family to graduate from … Read MoreLinda Thomas-Greenfield (1952- )
Ambassador Gail Dennise Mathieu, ca. 2008 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Gail Dennise Mathieu, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, was appointed United States Ambassador to Niger by President George W. Bush in 2002. She remained in Niamey, the capital until 2005. In 2007 … Read MoreGail Dennise Mathieu (1951?- )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” On August 5, 1999 President William Clinton appointed Gregory Lee Johnson U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland. He served in that post from November 16, 1999 to October 18, 2001. Johnson began his career in the Foreign Service in 1968 and has served … Read MoreGregory Lee Johnson (1945- )
