Ambassador Bisa Williams is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. She was also recently named a Knott Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Practice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Program in Peace, War and Defense. Since 2018, Ambassador Williams has led The Carter Center’s effort as Independent Observer of implementation of the Peace Agreement in Mali, West Africa. Her diplomatic career began in the U.S. Department of State where she was a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in Africa, Central America, Europe, and the US, including at the US Mission to the United Nations and the National Security Council of The White House. As Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Bisa led the US delegation to talks in Havana, Cuba, ending a seven-year hiatus of high level direct discussions. Her accomplishments were recognized in the book Back Channel to Cuba. Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010, Bisa served for 3 years as Ambassador to Niger and subsequently earned the distinction of being the first Department of State officer ever to be awarded the “Agency Seal Medal” from the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for her “exceptional contributions to U.S. national security.” Returning to Washington as Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Williams retired from the Foreign Service in 2015. She co-founded Williams Strategy Advisors, LLC, a problem-solving, business and foreign affairs advisory firm with her brother Paul T. Williams, Jr. in 2016. She chairs the Board of Health & Development International, an NGO whose groundbreaking study was recently recognized by Lancet Global Health magazine and Harvard’s Maternal Health Task Force, is a Trustee of World Learning, an NGO focused on education, exchange and development, and is on the Board of African Agriculture, a dedicated African food security company. Bisa speaks French, Spanish, and Portuguese, holds a Master of Science degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College of the National Defense University, a Master of Arts degree in Comparative Literature from UCLA, and received her BA cum laude from Yale.