Jessica Lapenn

Biography

Ambassador Jessica Lapenn is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and
currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and the U.S. Permanent
Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Just prior to this
assignment, 2016-2019, she was the Chargé d’Affaires in South Africa. Previous leadership
roles include Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security and Deputy
Chief of Mission in Kigali.

Ambassador Lapenn joined the Foreign Service in 1994 and has served overseas in
Jeddah, Riyadh, Paris, Tbilisi, Baghdad, and Jerusalem. In Washington, she worked for the
Under Secretary for Political Affairs, as the desk officer for Libya and Tunisia, and as the
director of the Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the Bureau of International
Organizations. She was an advisor on Security Council matters at the U.S. Mission to the UN in
New York and spent a year as a fellow in a Congressional office.

Ambassador Lapenn was born and raised in New York City. She received a BA in
Women’s Studies from Harvard College and an M.Phil in International Development from
Cambridge University. Her twelve-year old son has been along for all her most recent
adventures.