Ambassador Deborah Jones
Board Member
Ambassador Deborah Jones retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2016 with the rank of Career Minister following a 34-year diplomatic career that included assignments in Argentina, Iraq, Tunisia, Syria, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey, as well as service as U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait and Libya. She currently serves as Board Chair of Amideast and the Hollings Center and is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.
Ambassador Jones studied Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute’s Field School in Tunis, Tunisia, and served on the Department’s Board of Examiners. She has received multiple Department senior performance awards, including several Superior Honor Awards, and was nominated for a Presidential Honor Award in 2014.
Ambassador Jones received a BS in History, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University where she also pursued graduate studies in the Humanities and taught undergraduate courses at BYU’s Study Abroad program in Madrid, Spain. She is a “Distinguished Graduate” of the National War College, National Defense University, with a Master’s Degree in National Security Strategy. Her languages include Spanish, Arabic, and French.