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Term of Appointment: 7/2011 to present
Ryan Crocker was confirmed as Ambassador to Afghanistan on June 30, 2011. He assumed
US Department of State
U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker
Chief of Mission duties at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on July 24, 2011 after serving as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from March 29, 2007, until 2009. In January 2010, following his term as Ambassador in Baghdad, Crocker became Dean of Texas A&M University's George Bush School of Government and Public Service.
Crocker served as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan from October 2004 to March, 2007. He served previously as the International Affairs Advisor at the National War College, where he joined the faculty in 2003. From May to August 2003, he was in Baghdad as the first Director of Governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from August 2001 to May 2003, and served previously as Ambassador to Syria (1998-2001), Ambassador to Kuwait (1994-1997) and Ambassador to Lebanon (1990-1993). Since joining the Foreign Service in 1971, he also has had assignments in Iran, Qatar, Iraq and Egypt, as well as Washington. He was assigned to the American Embassy in Beirut during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the bombings of the embassy and the Marine barracks in 1983.
He grew up in an Air Force family, attending schools in Morocco, Canada and Turkey, as well as the U.S. He received a B.A. in English in 1971 and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2001 from Whitman College (Washington). Ambassador Crocker received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 1994, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service in 1997 and the Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 1999 and 2003. He also holds the State Department Distinguished Honor Award, Award for Valor, three Superior Honor Awards and the American Foreign Service Association Rivkin Award. In January 2002, he was sent to Afghanistan to reopen the American Embassy in Kabul. He subsequently received the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award for "exceptional courage and leadership" in Afghanistan. In September 2004, President Bush conferred on him the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the Foreign Service.
Visit the website of the Embassy of the United States in Kabul, Afghanistan
Term of Appointment: 6/2011 to present
Deputy Ambassador James B. Cunningham
James B. Cunningham was appointed Deputy Ambassador in Kabul, Afghanistan in June 2011. Prior to his current assignment in Afghanistan, Ambassador Cunningham served as the Ambassador in Israel since August 18, 2008. Before arriving in Tel Aviv, Ambassador Cunningham was U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong, responsible for the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions of China. Prior to Hong Kong, he was Ambassador and Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1999-2004) and Acting Permanent Representative from January to September 2001. Ambassador Cunningham holds the rank of Career Minister in the Foreign Service.
Ambassador Cunningham has spent much of his career working on European and security affairs, with broad experience in multilateral diplomacy. After early tours in Stockholm, Washington, Rome and the U.S. Mission to NATO, he served as Chief of Staff to NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner. He advised the Secretary General on all NATO issues in the context of the unification of Germany and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, and on the management of the 1,200 member international staff.
Just after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Ambassador Cunningham became Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the UN. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Director of the State Department's Office of European Security and Political Affairs, with responsibility for many aspects of U.S. policy toward Europe. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Rome from 1996 to 1999.
Ambassador Cunningham was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University, with degrees in political science and psychology. He is married to Leslie Genier of Mineville, New York. They have two daughters at university. He speaks Italian, French and Spanish. Ambassador Cunningham is the recipient of the Department's Superior, Merit and Performance awards; the National Performance Review's Hammer Award for innovation in government management; and the President's Meritorious Service Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society.
Ambassador Richard Olson is the Coordinating Director for Development and Economic Affairs, U.S. Embassy
Assistant Ambassador Richard G. Olson
Mr. Olson joined the U.S. Department of State in 1982. He has served in Mexico, Uganda, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, (where he served both at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and as U.S. Consul General in Dubai), and in Najaf, Iraq. Immediately prior to returning to the UAE he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).His Washington assignments include: State Department Operations Center (twice), NATO Desk, the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs (twice, including as Director), and the Office of Iraqi Affairs, including as Director. He graduated from Brown University in 1981, receiving an A.B. in Law and Society (Honors) and History. Mr. Olson has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s Superior Honor Award (three times) and the Secretary of Defense’s Exceptional Civilian Service Award for his service in Iraq. He is the father of two daughters. In his spare time, Olson is avid bicyclist, and competed in the March 2011 Abu Dhabi International Triathlon (sprint).
USAID
Dr. S. Ken Yamashita
Dr. S. Ken Yamashita was sworn-in as the tenth U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director to Afghanistan on June 10, 2011. A Senior Executive Foreign Service Officer with a rank of Minister Counselor, Yamashita has served USAID for more than 20 years in both overseas and Washington, D.C. assignments.
As head of the USAID/Afghanistan team, Yamashita is responsible for the U.S. Government’s assistance program to Afghanistan. With more than $13.1 billion provided for development programs since 2002, USAID has the largest bilateral civilian assistance program in Afghanistan. USAID’s work continues to be a vital support to Afghanistan in its efforts to ensure economic growth led by the private sector, establish a democratic and capable state governed by the rule of law, and provide basic services for its people.
Most recently, Yamashita served as the Mission Director for USAID in Colombia. In this capacity, he managed a $200 million a year development portfolio aimed at developing alternatives to illicit crops production, re-establishing government presence in remote areas of the country, assisting vulnerable populations, and preventing human rights violations.
Prior to that, Yamashita served as Acting Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (E&E), U.S. Agency for International Development where he directed a $650 million annual budget that supported economic growth and fiscal reform, democracy-building, and social transition in the 15 European and Eurasian countries receiving U.S. foreign assistance.
Yamashita’s other USAID assignments include Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the E&E Bureau; Director of the Office of Health for USAID/Ecuador; Chief of the Health Policy Division, Global Center for Health, Population, and Nutrition, USAID/Washington; Director of the Office of Health, USAID/South Africa; Interim Mission Director, USAID Mission Director for Kosovo; and Deputy Mission Director of USAID/Peru. From 2006-2008, Yamashita was simultaneously the Director of Office of HIV/AIDS within USAID’S Bureau for Global Health and the USG Special Advisor for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, an appointment designated by the USAID Administrator through delegated authority of the U.S. Secretary of State.
Before joining USAID, Yamashita worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Futures Group, and the United Nations.
A native of Kobe, Japan, Yamashita received a B.A. in environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1975, and a Ph.D. with a concentration of population and development economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1980. He has received numerous awards and citations for his contributions to development, including the prestigious Presidential Meritorious Rank Award in 2009.
Yamashita is married and has two children.
BIO Ken Yamashita
BIO Ken Yamashita Dari
BIO Ken Yamashita Pashto
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Term of Appointment: 5/2011 to present
Dr. Jeffrey Ashley is a Senior Foreign Service Officer with USAID and holds the rank of
Robert Sauers/USAID
Dr. Jeffrey Ashley, Senior Deputy Mission Director
Prior to his current assignment, he was the Mission Director in Yemen, a position that he began in May 2009. As the Mission Director, he managed a portfolio of more than $200 million that focused on stabilization and counter-extremism goals. He closely coordinated all USAID programs with the interagency and the U.S. Military Special Operations Command/Central Command at post.
From February 2008 to March 2009, Dr. Ashley served as the USAID representative on the Kirkuk Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq, where he managed the implementation of a large portfolio of reconstruction, governance, economic development, agriculture, and rule of law projects with multiple U.S. Government agencies.
Dr. Ashley joined USAID as a Foreign Service Officer in February 1995. His other notable assignments include the Director of the Office of Basic Human Services, USAID/Indonesia from May 2007 to January 2008; Director of the Office of Regional Health and HIV/AIDS Programs at USAID/East Africa from March 2003 to 2007; and posts as Director of Projects, USAID/Angola; Chief of the PHN Office, USAID/Cambodia and Mekong Countries; and PHN Officer in USAID/Tanzania.
Dr. Ashley has more than 20 years of public health and general development experience in maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, economic growth, agriculture, democracy and governance, food aid, transition and humanitarian assistance. He has also served on humanitarian aid missions with non-governmental organizations in Latin America and Africa and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
Dr. Ashley is specialized in public health and science with sub-specializations in epidemiology, maternal and child health, international health, and infectious diseases from the University of Texas, Texas Medical Center School of Public Health. He also has post-doctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology and conducted psychiatric epidemiological research during a joint appointment at the University of Texas School of Public Health and School of Medicine in Houston.
Dr. Ashley is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Kiswahili and has knowledge of spoken German, Guarani, Khmer, Bahasa Indonesia, French, and Arabic.
BIO Dr. Jeffrey Ashley
BIO Dr. Jeffrey Ashley - Dari
BIO Dr. Jeffrey Ashley - Pashto
Term of Appointment: 4/2011 to present
USAID Deputy Mission Director Brooke Isham
In April 2011, Brooke Isham began her current assignment as a Deputy Mission Director in Afghanistan. Her primary responsibility is field operations.
Ms. Isham began her career with USAID as an International Development Intern in Washington, D.C. in 1993. From 1994 to 1995, she worked as a Program Economist for USAID in Mali.
From 1996 to 1998, Ms. Isham was a Project Development Officer and Deputy Program Officer for USAID/Central Asia.
Ms. Isham served for five years with USAID in Russia, first as a Deputy Program Officer from 1998 through 2001, and then as the Director for the Office of Economic Policy Reform until 2003.
Following her assignments in Russia, Ms. Isham went to USAID/Jordan where she worked as the Director of the Office of Program Management until 2007. Her next assignment was the Deputy Mission Director of USAID/Sudan, a position she held until the end of 2009.
In 2010, Ms. Isham served as the Director of the Office of Food for Peace in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Isham received a Ph.D. in commodity economics in 1992 from Stanford University after obtaining a master’s degree in applied economics and a bachelor’s degree in economics, both at Stanford University.
BIO Brooke Isham - English
BIO Brooke Isham - Dari
BIO Brooke Isham - Pashto
Last updated22 May 2012
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