Jendayi Frazer

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Dr. Jendayi Frazer

Jendayi E. Frazer is the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, heading the Bureau of African Affairs. Before taking on her current job, Frazer was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African affairs on the National Security Council and the first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. Prior to entering government in 2001, Frazer was an Assistant Professor for Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1995 to 2001. She was Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver and editor of the journal Africa Today from 1991-1994. She graduated from Stanford University with B.A. in Political Science and African and African-American Studies, M.A. degrees in International Policy Studies and International Development Education, and a Ph.D. in Political Science. Frazer is a specialist in African Affairs and International Security Affairs. During her tenure at the National Security Council, she was instrumental in the decisions that led to establishing the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for HIV/AID Relief (PEPFAR) as well as the Millennium Challenge Account that has contributed to raising U.S. assistance to Africa to a historic high of $4.1 billion in 2006. She also designed the Administration's policies to end the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, and Sudan's north-south civil war.

On January 7, 2007, Frazer met with Somali political leaders in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss United States support for the interim Somali government.^[1] Later that day she cancelled a planned trip to Mogadishu, Somalia, due to the media revealing the details of her itinerary and riots in the city the day before over a faulty disarmament plan. ^[2]