stephen schwartz:
CLASS OF 1976
Williamsville South High SchoolClass of 1976
Williamsville, NY
stephen's Story
I spent the 1980s doing a variety of things, many related to Africa. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon 1981-81 and worked in the Peace Corps HQ 1984-87. In between I spent a year in graduate school in Stockholm and afterwards earned a Masters degree in African Studies from the University of London. I then worked in the Africa program at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC followed by a stint with a non-profit set up to help newly liberated Central and Eastern Europe. I left there at the end of 1991 to join the U.S. Foreign Service. Since 1992 I have served at our embassies in Ethiopia, Burundi, Cuba, South Africa, Mauritius, and Zambia, as well as jobs at the State Department as desk officer for Sudan, Special Assistant for Africa and Western Hemisphere to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, deputy director and curre...Expand for more
ntly director for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. I also earned a Masters degree at the National War College. It's been a great career. Along the way I married Kristy Cook, from Northern California, and we adopted to children from Ethiopia in 2004. We have a house and currently live in Takoma Park, Maryland. I was nominated by the President on January 11, 2016 to be the U.S. Ambassador to Somalia and had my Senate confirmation hearing on March 10, 2016. If and when I'm confirmed by the Senate and sworn in to my position I'll be based in Nairobi, Kenya and make regular trips into Somalia until we can set up a permanent embassy there. I suppose I can credit or blame Karen Willyoung and her class on Africa and Asia for putting me on a path to work in and with Africa for most of my adult life. It's been great, thank you Karen!
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