Professional Affiliation

Board of Directors Member, American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans (AFRECS); Retired Senior USAID Development Professional

Expert Bio

Thomas Staal is a retired Senior International Development Professional and member of the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans (AFRECS) Board of Directors. He retired in 2019 as the Counselor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he started as an Emergency Program Officer in Khartoum, Sudan in the aftermath of the East Africa famine of the mid 1980s, and then as a Deputy Director of Food for Peace Office covering Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, and Somalia. He had a long career with USAID where he held many positions, including Acting Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) and Mission Director in Ethiopia and Iraq.  Prior to his work with USAID, Staal was the Country Representative for World Vision International in Sudan and Government Relations Representative for Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in Saudi Arabia. Born in Bahrain to missionary parents and raised in Iraq and Kuwait, he went to boarding school in southern India. Staal holds degrees from Hope College, Columbia University, and the National Defense University.