Gayleatha B. Brown

Gayleatha Beatrice Brown is a United States foreign service officer and ambassador. She has served in several diplomatic posts during her career with the U.S. Department of State and is the current U.S. ambassador to Benin.

President Bush nominated Brown for the ambassadorial post on May 11, 2006. Following her confirmation by the Senate on June 14, she was sworn in as ambassador to Benin on July 25, 2006 in the Benjamin Franklin Reception Room at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Education

Brown was educated in the Red Jacket Elementary School, Matewan Elementary and High Schools in Mingo County, West Virginia. She graduated from high school at Edison High School in Edison, New Jersey. [ [http://cotonou.usembassy.gov/bio.html Ambassador Gayleatha B. Brown Biography] , United States Ambassador to the Republic of Benin. Accessed September 29, 2007. "She was educated in the Red Jacket Elementary School, Matewan Elementary and High Schools in Mingo County, West Virginia; and Edison Township High School, Edison, New Jersey."] She has BA and MA honor degrees from Howard University. She conducted post-graduate work in international relations at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.

Career

Before joining the Department of State, Ambassador Brown was a Special Assistant to the Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Africa and a legislative assistant in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress.

Brown’s postings with the Department of State have included:
*Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa
*U.S. Consul General at the American Consulate General and concurrently as the U.S. Deputy Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France
*Chief of the Economic and Commercial Sections at the U.S. Embassies in Harare, Zimbabwe; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
*Desk Officer for Canada, Senegal, Guinea, and Mauritania at the State Department in Washington
*Economic Officer/Regional United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Representative and Finance and Development Officer at the U.S. Embassies in Paris and Abidjan
*Representative of the State Department Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Export Credit Arrangement negotiations

Honors

*Lady of the Golden Horseshoe (West Virginia state academic honor)
*Among the first women Rotarians in Tanzania
*Charter member of the New Jersey Edison Township High School Alumni Hall of Fame
*Two Department of State Superior Honor Awards
*State Department Meritorious Honor Award
*Honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority and Sandown Rotary Club in Johannesburg, South Africa

Ambassador Brown speaks English, French and KiSwahili. She writes poetry, enjoys reading (particularly mystery novels), and loves dancing, tennis, tai chi, and music (especially gospel, soul, jazz, classical). She is a member of the Shiloh Baptist Church (Pilgrim Circle) in Washington, D.C. and is associated with the Community Church of Iselin, New Jersey.

ee also

*Ambassadors from the United States

References

ources

* [http://cotonou.usembassy.gov/bio.html United States Embassy in Cotonou: Biography of the ambassador]
* [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/70159.htm United States Department of State: Biography of Gayleatha Brown]
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060511-9.html White House press release]