Gambia Gets New US Ambassador

New United States Ambassador to the Gambia, Pamela White,  Monday presented her credentials to President Yahya Jammeh at State House in Banjul, news release from the US embassy in Banjul states.
She succeeded Barry L Wells who completed a three-year mission in The Gambia in July this year. Ambassador White’s nomination by President Barak Obama was confirmed by the US senate September 29, 2010. Before her new appointment, she was serving as Mission Director for United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) in Liberia.
“Ambassador White holds the rank of Career Minister, the highest rank within the Foreign Service,” the dispatch states. “White has over 35 years of experience from serving mostly in Africa, where she began her public service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon (1971-1973).
At USAID, Ambassador White has served as community liaison officer in Burkina Faso, Deputy Director Executive Officer in Senegal and Haiti and Executive Officer in the Haitian, Egyptian, and South African missions. As Deputy Director for East Africa in Washington D.C., she coordinated the delivery of much-needed food to Ethiopia and Eritrea, helped to develop a six-year Ugandan strategy, and oversaw the expansion of programes in Sudan and Congo.
In Mali, Ambassador White’s work as Deputy and Mission Director for USAID is credited with the tripling of the number of girls in primary school, the 200 percent increase in the number of elected women leaders and the doubling of the percentage of children receiving vaccinations.
For her extraordinary work she was awarded the highest decoration given to foreigners, the Knight of the National Order of Merit (Ordre national du Mali).  She is one of four Americans who share in this honour.
Following her work in Mali, Ambassador White was appointed Mission Director in Tanzania where she managed a $130 million aid program focused on HIV/AIDs prevention, malaria control, primary education, conservation of natural resources, and control of corruption.
Ambassador White, a native from Auburn, Maine, studied at the University of Maine and the School for International Training where she earned a Master’s degree in International Development.