Chair of the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security (FPGS), Ambassador Piper Campbell began teaching at AU in January 2020. She was Administrative Director of SIS's Foreign Policy (USFP) and Global Governance (GGPS) graduate programs before becoming inaugural chair of FPGS. This followed a distinguished, 30-year diplomatic career. Campbell also has taught national security strategy at the National Defense University’s National War College.

Ambassador Campbell is past director and current chair of American University's ASEAN Studies Initiative (ASI). The initiative builds on her interest in East Asia and navigating multilateral organizations. These two expertise combined when she had the opportunity to lead the U.S. Mission to ASEAN based in Jakarta from June – December 2018. In that capacity, she served as “Senior Official” in formal sessions of the East Asia Summit, ASEAN regional Forum and the Lower Mekong Initiative. Leading a multi-agency team involved wide-ranging activities from securing agreement with ASEAN Defense Ministers on holding the first U.S.-ASEAN military exercise to opening a summit of Young South East Asian entrepreneurs.

Earlier, Ambassador Campbell served as Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Ulaanbaatar from 2012-2015, in which capacity she supported negotiations on the development of Mongolia’s extractive industries and agreement on a $350 million U.S.-Mongolia Millennium Challenge Compact. She also was Consul General in Basrah, Iraq from 2011-2012, as the U.S. military withdrew.

Piper Campbell retired from the State Department in April 2019, with the rank of Minister Counselor.