Gambia: Gambia gets New US Ambassador
By Femi Peters – Prior the confirmation of Ambassador Pamela White as the New US Ambassador to the Gambia, she had served at the Mission Director for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Liberia. Ambassador White holds the rank of Career Minister, the highest rank within the Foreign Service. Ms. White has over 35 years of experience from serving mostly in Africa where she began her public service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon (1971-1973). Ms. White joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1978 after several years of work in education and research.
Ambassador Pamela White has definitely had a great track record in Africa as she had worked in Liberia; At USAID Ambassador White has served as: community liaison officer in Burkina Faso, Deputy Director Executive Officer in Senegal and Haiti and Executive Officer in Haitian, Egyptian, and South African missions. As Deputy Director for East Africa in Washington, D.C., she coordinated the delivery of much-needed food to Ethiopia and Eritrea, helped to develop a six-year Ugandan strategy, and oversaw the expansion of programs in the Sudan and Congo.
However the confirmation of her nomination by President Barack Obama came as no surprised due to her past records and wealth of experience in working in Africa as her credentials were presented to His Excellency the President of the Republic of the Gambia Sheikh Professor Dr. Alhaji A.J.J. Yahya Jammeh on November 29, 2010. Ambassador white had also helped receive one of the largest Millennium Challenge Corporation grants after implementing development strategies to fight corruption and improve accountability in Africa. A native from Auburn, Maine, were she studied at the University of Maine and the School for International Training earning a Master Degree in International Development. In 1999, she graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. She received the 2007 Bernard Lawn ’42 Humanitarian Award from the University of Maine, for her many years of service to improve the health, education, and the economic well-being of people around the world. She is married to a member of the U.S. Foreign Service and has two grown children.
