Mary Carlin Yates 131212-N-PX557-067 (11356890434)

Mary Carlin Yates (born 1946 in Portland, Oregon) was a

Foreign Service Officer A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U ...

at the U.S. State Department and was one of two deputy commanders of the

United States Africa Command The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM, U.S. AFRICOM, and AFRICOM), is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U. ...

until June 2009. Yates retired in September 2011 after 31 years. Her two final assignments were as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) of the White House from January 2011- August 2011 and as the Senior Advisor for Strategic Planning and Special Assistant to the President from June 2009 – December 2010. Despite her retirement, she served as Chargé d'Affaires in Khartoum, Sudan through February 2012. Yates earned her BA in English from

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

and earned a Master's in Comparative East West Humanities from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, where she pursued her doctoral studies in Asian Affairs. She served as U.S. Ambassador to the

Republic of Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Grea ...

from 1999 until June 2002, and as U.S. Ambassador to the

Republic of Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

from November 2002 to 2005. Yates was named on September 28, 2008, as the Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities,

(USAFRICOM), headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany where she served most recently as the Principal Advisor to the Commander,

United States European Command The United States European Command (EUCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States military, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Its area of focus covers and 51 countries and territories, including Europe, Russi ...

(USEUCOM). She has earned two State Department Superior Honor Awards and two Meritorious Honor Awards. Her husband John M. Yates is U.S. Special Envoy to

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

. Yates also currently sits on th
Atlantic Council's
ref> Board of Directors.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20081019213306/http://www.africom.mil/yates.asp

1946 births Living people Oregon State University alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Burundi Ambassadors of the United States to Ghana United States Foreign Service personnel New York University alumni American women ambassadors United States National Security Council staffers Ambassadors of the United States to Sudan {{US-diplomat-stub