The West African nation of Niger is set to receive a new ambassador from the U.S. Nominated by President Barack Obama on July 30, Eunice Reddick has been director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State since 2011. Assuming she is confirmed by the Senate as expected, Reddick would succeed Bisa Williams, who started her service in Niamey in October 2010.
Born in 1951 in New York City, Reddick graduated Hunter College High School in 1969. She earned a BA in History and Literature at New York University in 1973 and an M.A. in International Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs in 1975. After completing her graduate studies, she worked for several years at the Africa-America Institute in New York and Washington, DC.
Commencing her Foreign Service career in 1980, Reddick was posted as consular officer to the embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe. In 1983, she returned to Washington to serve in the Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration Affairs, where she monitored assistance to African refugees.
From 1986 to 1988, Reddick served as country officer for Tanzania and the India Ocean countries in the Bureau of African Affairs, and as a senior watch officer in the secretary of state’s 24-hour Operations Center. Reddick studied Mandarin Chinese at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Taipei Language School from 1989 to 1990, followed by service in the political section at the embassy in Beijing, China, from 1991 to 1993.
Reddick received the Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellowship in 1993 and spent a year as an associate at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. She served two straight gigs as deputy director in the State Department, first in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Office of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam Affairs, and then in the Office of International Development Assistance in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.
Returning to Taiwan, Reddick was the chief of the political section at AIT from 1997 to 2000. From 2002 to 2004, she was director of the Office of Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore Affairs. After a stint as deputy director of that office when it also covered Indonesia. From 2005 to 2007, she served as director of the Office of East African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs. Reddick served her first ambassadorship as ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Principe from November 2007 to December 2010, followed by a brief stint as diplomat in residence at Howard University.
Reddick is married to the former Ambassador to Chad, Marc Wall, who also served as the coordinator for Economic Transition in Iraq. They have two children, Gregory and Sarah.
-Matt Bewig
To Learn More:
Statement Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)
