Jendayi Frazer

Distinguished Service Professor, Director, Center for International Policy and Innovation

Bio

Jendayi E. Frazer joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in February 2009 as Distinguished Public Service Professor with joint appointments in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, and in the H. John Heinz III College's School of Public Policy and Management. Her current research focuses on strengthening regional security cooperation and economic and political integration in Africa. She is the Director of Carnegie Mellon's new Center for International Policy and Innovation (CIPI) where she is particularly interested in utilizing technology and applying innovative solutions to core issues of development and governance in Africa.

Ambassador Frazer was the leading architect of U.S.-Africa policy over the last decade, most recently serving as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from August 2005 to January 2009. She was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from January 2001 until her swearing-in as the first woman U.S. Ambassador to South Africa in June 2004. She was instrumental in the decisions to establish the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Millennium Challenge Account that committed $3.2 billion to well-governed African countries by 2008. She also designed the policies for ending wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Burundi. She previously served in government from August 1998 to December 1999 as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, first at the Pentagon as a Political-Military Planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. Frazer received the Distinguished Service Award in January 2009, the highest award bestowed by the Secretary of State in recognition of her public service.

Her research on security specifically focuses on strengthening civilian control of the military; mediation and conflict resolution; and establishing regional cooperative security arrangements. Frazer is a frequent guest on television and radio programs, and she is the author of several articles, book chapters, and opinion essays. Professor Frazer received her B.A. degree in Political Science (honors) and African and Afro-American Studies (distinction) in 1985, and M.A. degrees in International Policy Studies in 1985 and International Development Education in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Political Science, 1994 all from Stanford University.