U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria Mary Beth Leonard presented her credentials to His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari at a ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on December 24, 2019.
She was appointed by President Trump on June 24, 2019 and confirmed by the US Senate on August 1, 2019.
Leonard is a native of Massachusetts. Leonard’s father Earl Leonard, a math teacher and vice principal.
Ambassador Leonard attended Worcester Public school
Ambassador Leonard, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, appointed by President Obama as the U.S. Ambassador to the African Union.
She previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Mali and was a U.S. Department of State Faculty Advisor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and a Diplomat in Residence for New England at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
She also served as the Director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mali and the U.S. Embassy in Suriname, and as Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Cape Town, South Africa.
Ambassador Ms. Leonard earned a B.A. from Boston University, an M.A. with a concentration in African studies from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and an M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
She speaks French, Spanish, Afrikaans, and Dutch.
She was born in 1962
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