Jendayi Frazer

Jendayi Frazer is the Duignan Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and co-chairs Hoover’s Emerging Markets and Developing Economies Working Group. She is Chancellor of Riara University in Nairobi, Kenya and served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, 2005 to 2009, and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the NSC from 2001 until becoming U.S. Ambassador to South Africa in 2004. She also served in government from 1998 to 1999 as a CFR International Affairs Fellow, first at the Pentagon as a political-military planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, working on West Africa during Nigeria’s transition to civilian rule, and then as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, working on Central and East Africa. Frazer was a Distinguished Public Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and assistant professor at Harvard University and University of Denver. She was Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Frazer received her BA in political science (honors) and African and Afro-American studies (distinction), MAs in international policy studies and international development education, and PhD in political science, all from Stanford University, and her MBA from American University.