A resident of Tucson, Arizona, Janet A. Sanderson was confirmed as US ambassador to Haiti by the Senate on February 16, 2006.  

Sanderson graduated from the College of William and Mary with a BA in government and has a MA in national security studies from the College of Naval Warfare, Newport, RI.

She entered the Foreign Service in December 1977. She served as the Agency for International Development liaison officer in charge of US assistance programs in the West Bank and Gaza in Tel Aviv (1980-1982) and started her career as vice-consul/economic officer at the US Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

She served as petroleum attaché in Kuwait (1982-1984) and in Washington, DC, as the desk officer for Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (1984-86) and subsequently as the desk officer for the US Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (1986-1988).

Sanderson also served as economic counselor at the US Embassy in Amman, Jordan (1989-1992), as economic minister-counselor in Cairo (1993-1997) and as deputy chief of mission in Amman, Jordan (1997-2000).

Prior to her current assignment, Sanderson served as US ambassador to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria.  She speaks French, Arabic and Bengali.