Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, heading the Bureau of African Affairs.
Ambassador Frazer was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from February 22, 2001, until her swearing-in as Ambassador in June 17, 2004. As a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, she served as a political-military planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Department of Defense, and as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. 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 is also given credit for designing the administration's policy in ending the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Burundi.
Jendayi E. Frazer joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in February 2009 as Distinguished Public Service Professor with joint appointments in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, and in the H. John Heinz III College's School of Public Policy and Management.
Her current research focuses on strengthening regional security cooperation and economic and political integration in Africa. She is the Director of Carnegie Mellon's new Center for International Politics and Innovation (CIPI) where she is particularly interested in utilizing technology and applying innovative solutions to core issues of development and governance in Africa. [added 2009]
Frazer is a graduate of Stanford University, where she earned a 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.
Dr. Frazer was a visiting fellow at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University; a research associate at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, Kenya; a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver; and editor of the journal Africa Today.
Frazer held a postion as the editor of the journal Africa Today from 1991 to 1994. In that same year Frazer was Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver after which she became assistant Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1995 to 2001. In 2001, Frazer became Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs on the National Security Council and the the first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa from August 3, 2004 to August 26, 2005.
Sources:
www.whitehouse.gov/government/frazer-bio.html, www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/56774.htm,
www.wikipedia.com