Things You Need to Know about Mary Beth Leonard, New US Ambassador to Nigeria

Mary Beth is popularly described as a Defender of Human Rights and an Advocate of Democratic Principles.

Ambassador Mary

Beth Leonard is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor.

Between 2016 and 2019, Leonard was the Representative of the United States of America to the African Union, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, serving concurrently as US Permanent Representative to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

She was previously the US Ambassador to the Republic of Mali from 2011 to 2014.  Her service in Mali was recognised with the Department’s Diplomacy for Human Rights Award in 2013, an honour that annually recognises a US Chief of Mission who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to defending human rights and advancing democratic principles in his or her host country.

She served as the US State Department’s Senior Faculty Advisor at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, following a year as the Department’s Diplomat in Residence for New England, based at Tufts University.

Leonard was the Director for West African Affairs at the US Department of State from 2009 to 2011, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Bamako, Mali from 2006 to 2009.

After joining the US State Department in 1988, Leonard served overseas as an economic and consular officer in Yaoundé, Cameroon; Windhoek, Namibia; and Lomé, Togo.

She also worked in the US Department’s Operations Centre and in its Office of Central African Affairs. She served as political and economic officer in Cape Town, South Africa and thereafter as Deputy Chief of Mission in Paramaribo, Suriname.

Leonard, a native of Massachusetts, graduated magna cum laude with a BA from Boston University, with a major in economics and a minor in French.

In 1988, she earned a master’s degree in international relations, with an emphasis on African Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

In 2004, she received a Master of Security and Strategic studies from the US Naval War College with distinction. She speaks French, Spanish, Afrikaans, and Dutch.