Amb. J. Peter Pham, Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council, Former US Special Envoy for the Sahel and Great Lakes Regions of Africa

J. Peter Pham is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He previously served, with the personal rank of United States Ambassador, as the first-ever US Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa (2020-2021) and, before that, as the US Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa (2018-2020).

Prior to serving in the US administration, Peter was Vice President for Research and Regional Initiatives at the Atlantic Council as well as Director of the Council’s Africa Center. Earlier in his career, he was a tenured associate professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University, where he was director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

From 2008-2017, concurrent with his professional responsibilities, he also served as Vice President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) and Editor-in-Chief of ASMEA’s peer-reviewed quarterly Journal of the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of several books and more than 300 articles, essays and reviews on African politics, security, and economic issues.

Peter served on the Senior Advisory Group of the US Africa Command (USAFRICOM) from 2008-2013 and is presently a Senior Advisor to the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Board of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, serving as Vice Chair (2016-2021) and chairing its Finance Committee (since 2022).

He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Africell Global Holdings and of Rainbow Rare Earths as well as a Strategic Advisor to dClimate, High Power Exploration, Bitt, and other companies.

Peter is the recipient of numerous state honors and awards from African countries in recognition of contributions made over the course of his career to strengthening relations between the United States and Africa. In 2022, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.