Jackson
Jeanine
Ambassador Jeanine Jackson is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer and a retired U.S. Army
Colonel. Her significant contributions over her 30-year career have positively impacted the conduct of
diplomacy and development, execution of State Department management functions, interagency
coordination, and the mentoring of Foreign Service and military officers.
As Post Management Officer for the Soviet Union at the time of its dissolution, Ambassador
Jackson served as a key coordinator from Washington and in the field in the establishment of U.S.
Embassies in 13 new countries, following the collapse of Soviet rule in December, 1991. Ambassador
Jackson established programs to protect U.S. civilian, military, and local staff in Hong Kong during the
British Colony’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. After the horrific al Qaeda bombing of the
U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya in 1989, she reestablished Embassy management operations and
infrastructure, and the start of reconstructing a new U.S. Embassy.
Ambassador Jackson led the team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2001.
She then returned to Kabul to serve as the Embassy Management Counselor from 2002 to 2003, making
significant contributions in establishing standard operating procedures and, most important, transitioning
our operations in Kabul from an expeditionary mission into a fully functioning U.S. Embassy. There were
no procedures. Her creative work and innovative responses under difficult and often unanticipated and
dangerous challenges, helped guide how the Department opened other U.S. missions in dangerous areas,
such as the 2018 re-opening of U.S. Embassy Mogadishu, Somalia.
Her demonstrated accomplishments inspired the Department’s leadership to reassign Ambassador
Jackson from Kabul to Washington to serve as the Department of State’s Management Coordinator
responsible for the Inter-Agency effort to re-establish the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq in 2004. As the
Management Counselor of Embassy Baghdad 2009-11, as U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq, she
spearheaded a multi-agency task force that planned and executed the transition of support for the U.S.
Embassy from the Department of Defense to the Department of State responsibility. In recognition of her
remarkable service, Ambassador Jackson received the Secretary’s Distinguished Honor Award.
Ambassador Jackson served as Ambassador twice, first to Burkina Faso (2006-2009), a highly
volatile region at the center of violent extremism in Africa, where she successfully coordinated the U.S.
interagency and allied countries, the establishment of an effective counter terrorism operation. And to
Malawi (2011-2014), where she promoted a highly successful training program that enabled Malawi to
become an important African state in peacekeeping operations. She also led a successful development
and governance program that distinguished Malawi as one of Africa’s strongest democracies.
In retirement, Ambassador Jackson trained U.S. Army Corps and Division level officers on the
interagency process. She serves on the Board of Directors for AFRICAP, a private equity fund focused
on business development in Africa; and AGE Africa, providing educational and life skills opportunities
for thousands of girls in Malawi.
