Nomination of Jennifer C. Ward To Be United States Ambassador to Niger

The President today announced his intention to nominate Jennifer C. Ward, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Niger. She would succeed Carl C. Cundiff.

Since 1989 Dr. Ward has served as Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica. Prior to this Dr. Ward served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, 1986 - 1989; Deputy Director of the Office of Security Assistance and Sales for the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs at the Department of State in Washington, DC, 1984 - 1986; and as senior watch officer for the operations center at the Department of State, 1983 - 1984. Dr Ward has also served as Counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, Zaire, 1981 - 1983; as Deputy Director at the Office of Inter-African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State, 1979 - 1981; as a consultant for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for Africa, 1979; and as staff director of the subcommittee on Africa for the Committee on Foreign Affairs at the House of Representatives, 1978 - 1979. She has served as director of graduate admissions, assistant director of the graduate program, and lecturer in public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in Princeton, NJ, 1975 - 1978. From 1971 to 1973, Dr. Ward served as assistant to the vice president for academic affairs and lecturer in social science at the Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. Dr. Ward has served as staff assistant and staff associate at Education and World Affairs in New York, NY, 1968 - 1971.

Dr. Ward graduated from Vassar College (B.A., 1965) and the University of California, Los Angeles (M.A. and Ph.D., 1976). She was born January 29, 1944, in Worcestershire, England. Dr. Ward has one child and resides in Washington, DC.