BIOGRAPHY Constance Berry Newman Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs Term of Appointment: 06/24/2004 to present

Constance Berry Newman was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs on June 24, 2004. Prior to assuming her duties, Ms. Newman served as Assistant Administrator for Africa of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID is the government agency that administers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide.

Newman has extensive experience managing public and private organizations as well as international experience throughout the world. Before joining USAID, Newman served from 1998 to 2001 as a board member of the International Republican Institute, which conducts programs that promote democracy and strengthen free markets and rule of law. In that capacity, she participated in election and other monitoring activities in Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia and China. She also has served as a private consultant to South African leaders on affirmative action and diversity and to the World Bank as liaison to representatives of the South African National Congress, Pan-Africanist Congress, Inkatha, and the National Union of Mineworkers. In 1987 and 1988 she served as a Cooperative Housing Foundation consultant on a World Bank project in Lesotho to merge existing housing corporations into one that was structured to receive World Bank funding.

From 1992 to 2000, Newman was under secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. She was director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 1989 to 1992. She also served from 1994 to 2000 as board member and vice chair of the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority.

Newman's previous government service also includes assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; commissioner and vice chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; and VISTA director. In the private sector, she was president of the Institute for American Business and co-founder and president of the Newman and Hermanson Company.

Among her awards are the Smithsonian Institution Joseph Henry Medal (2000); Washingtonian of the Year (1998); Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service (1985); and Doctor of Laws, Bates College (1972), Amherst College (1980), and Central State University (1991).

She has a bachelor's degree in political science from Bates College in Maine and a bachelor's in law from the University of Minnesota School of Law.
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