John Jefferson "Jeff" Daigle is an American diplomat who serves as the United States Ambassador to Cabo Verde, being sworn in on June 28, 2019. Immediately prior to his Ambassadorship, Daigle served as Acting Executive Director for the

U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD), created in 1948, is tasked by Congress with "appraising U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics and to increase the understanding of ...

and Chief of Staff for the

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs The Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs is currently a top-10 ranking position in the U.S. Department of State that is intended to help ensure that public diplomacy is practiced in combination with public affairs and traditiona ...

. Daigle is one of five LGBT appointed ambassadors under the Trump administration.

Life and career

A native of

Gonzales, Louisiana Gonzales is a city in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 12,231. Known as the "Jambalaya Capital of the World", it is famous for its annual Jambalaya Festival, which was first held in 1968. S ...

, Daigle came from a large family. Born to Carole and Warren Daigle (he has described his father as a "World War II naval hero"), Daigle has 10 sisters and one brother. Daigle graduated from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

in 1987 (bachelor's degree in political science). Daigle had several jobs before entering the Foreign Service including working for an environmental non-governmental organization (Executive Director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network), a construction company, an English teacher in

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, a Regional Corporate Trainer for Hibernia National Bank in Baton Rouge and as an entertainer and facilitator of professional development programs at Disney World for seven years. Daigle joined the Foreign Service in 1999. Major assignments including the Assistant Public Affairs Officer at Embassy

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

(1999-2001), Reporting Officer at the

United States Mission to the United Nations The United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) serves as the United States' delegation to the United Nations. USUN is responsible for carrying out the nation's participation in the world body. In 1947, the United States Mission was created ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for the 56th U.N. General Assembly (2001), at Consul at Embassy Paris, France (2002-2004), Public Affairs Officer at Embassy

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

(2005-2008). From 2011 to 2014, Daigle served as the Deputy chief of mission (DCM) at the United States Embassy Phnom Penh. In the spring of 2014, Daigle was assigned to be the top public affairs officer in the United States Embassy Beijing, China but backed out of the position shortly before he was to begin language training. The Department could not guarantee they would be able to assist his husband, Matt Cuenca-Daigle, stay with Daigle on the multi-year tour in Beijing. The couple was told Cuenca-Daigle "would have to leave China every three months at his own expense and re-enter on a short-term visa." They have been a couple for 18 years at the time of his confirmation hearings and Matt "has been with (him) through every posting but one."

Personal life

Daigle speaks French, Khmer, and

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daigle, Jeff Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Cape Verde Louisiana State University alumni People from Gonzales, Louisiana United States Foreign Service personnel LGBT ambassadors of the United States Disney people 21st-century American diplomats American gay men Gay diplomats Year of birth missing (living people)

Life and career

Personal life

See also

References