Ambassador James A. Stewart

Advisory Board

With over 25 years of experience with the U.S. State Department serving as ambassador, counselor, and envoy, Ambassador Stewart has a distinguished diplomatic career promoting overarching U.S. economic priorities and political policies on an international scale.

Starting in 1989, he worked in Italy in the consular's office and as chief economic officer; chief economical and political officer in Gaborone, Botswana and Niamey, Niger; and political-economic counselor in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. From 2004—2006, he served as deputy chief of mission in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he researched and drafted analyses regarding local and international efforts to rebuild the war-torn country and to develop key economic sectors and infrastructure.

From 2006—2010, Ambassador Stewart served as U.S. Permanent Representative/Ambassador to the UN Program Global Headquarters Environmental Program (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. There, he researched hard-fought negotiated positions on resolutions among 58 member states that define UNEP's global work on climate change, dangerous chemicals, developing country capacity building, sustainable water use policy, and global environmental monitoring and reporting. He has also worked as a researcher and writer for the State of Oregon and for Pacific Power & Light, based in Portland.

Ambassador Stewart graduated summa cum laude with a master's in economics from The Pennsylvania State University in 1980. In 2010, he received the U.S. State Department's Career Service Award from Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.