Ambassador Jessye Lapenn

Ambassador Jessica Lapenn is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Just prior to this assignment, 2016-2019, she was the Chargé d’Affaires in South Africa.  Previous leadership roles include Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security and Deputy Chief of Mission in Kigali.  Ambassador Lapenn joined the Foreign Service in 1994 and has served overseas in Jeddah, Riyadh, Paris, Tbilisi, Baghdad, and Jerusalem. In Washington, she worked for the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, as the desk officer for Libya and Tunisia, and as the director of the Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the Bureau of International Organizations. She was an advisor on Security Council matters at the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York and spent a year as a fellow in a Congressional office. Ambassador Lapenn was born and raised in New York City. She received a BA in Women’s Studies from Harvard College and an M.Phil in International Development from Cambridge University. Her thirteen-year old son has been along for all her most recent adventures.