Jendayi Frazer Biography

Frazer earned a B.A. in Political Science (honors) and African and Afro-American Studies (distinction) from Stanford University in 1985, and M.A. degrees in International Policy Studies and International Development Education in 1989, as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 1994. Jendayi E. Frazer is a world-renowned specialist in African affairs, focusing on international development and regional and international security. She has worked on international development, regional security, and governance in Africa for almost three decades in academic research, teaching, and public service. She has spoken to a wide range of groups, including the Save Darfur rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2006, Harvard University's FORUM, Chatham House in London, Peking University in China, and a number of American Chambers of Commerce across the world. She has been on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), as well as National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Tell Me More, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Entertainment Tonight, Tavis Smiley, and the BBC's Hard Talk. She has written a number of articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces. Frazer is a Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the H. John Heinz College's School of Public Policy and Management, where she continues her work in international politics. Her current study focuses on enhancing regional security cooperation as well as African economic and political integration. Frazer is also the head of Carnegie Mellon's Center for International Policy and Innovation (CIPI) in Washington, D.C., where she focuses on using technology to improve governance and economic growth in Africa. She is particularly interested in using creative solutions to address key development challenges in Africa, such as extending broadband access, clean water, waste management, and recycling. Over the course of over a decade, Frazer was a key architect of US-Africa diplomacy, most recently serving as the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from August 2005 to January 2009. From August 2004 until August 2005, she served as the United States' first female ambassador to South Africa. From January 2001 until her inauguration as Ambassador in June 2004, she worked in the National Security Council as a special assistant to the President and senior director for African affairs. She was regarded as the chief US envoy for Africa for her active, hands-on diplomacy, having visited 41 of the 48 sub-Saharan African nations during her time in federal service. She is the highest-ranking US official to visit Somalia and Somaliland in the last 16 years. Frazer played a key role in promoting key diplomatic projects such as Somalia's national reconciliation, the resolution of Kenya's political conflict following the 2007 presidential election, and the restoration to democracy in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, has been a vociferous opponent of her. Secretary Condoleezza Rice awarded Frazer with the Distinguished Service Award in January 2009 in appreciation of her services in promoting US foreign policy in Africa. The Secretary of State conferred it on Frazer for her "exemplary efforts to safeguard democracy and create peace and prosperity across Africa, as well as her excellent and active leadership of the Bureau of African Affairs." She supervised a $206 million operational budget as director of the State Department's African Affairs Bureau, commanded a domestic team of 200, and was accountable for nearly 14,000 U.S. and locally hired employees serving overseas through the 44 Chiefs of Mission in Africa reporting to Frazer. During Frazer's stint as Secretary of State, US aid to Africa tripled, hitting an all-time high of $6.7 billion in 2008. Frazer was the top administrator of the United States' largest embassy in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a staff of over 850 people, and she directed $200 million in US aid to South Africa as Ambassador. She is credited with forging strong bonds with senior South African decision-makers, allowing her unprecedented access and assisting in the expansion of US assistance and programs in the areas of health, education, peacekeeping, and nuclear and counter-terrorism cooperation with the South African government. Frazer also managed the US executive branch procedure that culminated in the removal of Nelson Mandela and other top African National Congress members' classification as terrorists under US immigration rules, which had been in place for three decades. She was a strong advocate for American businesses wanting to increase two-way commerce between the United States and South Africa beyond $2.9 billion in 2005, recognizing that South Africa is the major destination of U.S. private investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Frazer was the President's and National Security Advisor's top adviser for Africa during her time at the National Security Council. She was a driving force behind the establishment of the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the $500 million African Education Initiative, and the $3.2 billion Millennium Challenge Account for well-governed African countries by 2008. Frazer is also credited with developing the administration's plans for ending the hostilities in the DRC, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Burundi. She was a staunch supporter of debt cancellation and was a key figure in the Bush Administration's early and extraordinary engagement with Africa, which has been lauded by global leaders such as Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and celebrities such as Bono and Bob Geldof. Frazer was an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government from 1995 to 2001 before joining the government. She took a leave of absence from Harvard from August 1998 to December 1999 after being selected for the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, serving first as a Political-Military Planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then as the National Security Council's director for African Affairs. From 1993 to 1995, she worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies. She was also the editor of Africa Today from 1993 to 1996, and after reorganizing the Editorial Board and converting the magazine into a viable enterprise, she sold it to Lynne Rienner Publishers. She lectured at the Government Department at the University of Nairobi in Kenya from 1989 to 1990 as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies.

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