USAID announces new Sudan Mission Director

Dr Jeffrey Ashley, the new US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director for Sudan, has been sworn-in at a ceremony in Washington DC.

According to a press statement by USAID today, Dr Ashley will oversee USAID’s humanitarian and development programs in Sudan, which include lifesaving food and other emergency assistance, as well as development programs in conflict mitigation, democracy and governance, and human rights, focused on supporting organizations that advocate for the rights and opportunities of persons with disabilities, promoting women’s rights and helping prevent gender-based violence.

A Senior Foreign Service Officer with USAID, Dr. Ashley has nearly 25 years of international public health and general development and humanitarian aid experience. He joined USAID in 1995 and most recently served on the faculty of the National War College in Washington.  His USAID Foreign Service assignments include Mission Director for USAID’s East Africa Mission in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was responsible for overseeing 13 countries, including Somalia and Central African Republic.

He served as Senior Deputy Mission Director in Afghanistan, Mission Director in Yemen and representative on the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kirkuk, Iraq. He also held chief health posts in Indonesia, Kenya, Angola, Cambodia, and Tanzania, and on humanitarian aid missions with non-governmental organizations during civil wars in Nicaragua and Angola, and in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay from 1990 to 1992.

Dr Ashley obtained his doctorate at the University of Texas, Texas Medical Center School of Public Health in 1989 and completed post-doctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology and research at the University of Texas School of Public Health and School of Medicine in Houston.

He replaces Larry Meserve, who has served as USAID Sudan Mission Director since July 2013.

USAID is the lead US Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.