Terence McCulley served as US Ambassador to Mali, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire, and as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at US Embassies in Togo, Senegal and Tunisia, and also in Denmark. In Washington, Ambassador McCulley worked on Central African affairs during the Rwanda genocide, and from 2004-2005, he helped to coordinate reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Earlier diplomatic postings include Niger, South Africa and Chad, and Mumbai, India.

Ambassador McCulley is the recipient of four Department of State Superior Honor Awards, and he has been decorated as a commander of the national orders of Mali and Côte d’Ivoire by President Amadou Toumani Touré and President Alassane Ouattara.

As the Senior Advisor for Africa at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York in 2016, 2017 and 2018, Ambassador McCulley advanced US multilateral objectives during the annual sessions of the UN General Assembly.

Ambassador McCulley was born in Medford, Oregon, and grew up in Eugene, where he received a BA in European History and French Language and Literature from the University of Oregon. As a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellow, he studied political science at the Université de Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France, and attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is fluent in French.