Ambassador Joseph Gerard Sullivan, who is currently serving as Diplomat in Residence at Tulane University in New Orleans, will be held at Grambling State University on Monday during an information session with students at 3 p.m. in Woodson Hall, Room 12.
Ambassador Sullivan has served as U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe since October 2001. He previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe from 2001-2004 and before that as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Angola from 1998-2001. A Career Minister of the Senior Foreign Service, he has held many positions in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Portugal since entering the Foreign Service in 1970.
Ambassador Sullivan served as chair of the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group in 1997-98; Special Coordinator for Haiti, 1996-97; and Principal Officer in Havana, Cuba, 1993-96. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs from 1989-92. Mr. Sullivan He also has served at the U.S. Embassy in Israel from 1984-88, the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon from 1975-79, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. He was a recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 1992.
Ambassador Sullivan was a Diplomat-in-Residence at Georgetown University in 1993 and spent the 1979-1980 academic year at Yale University. He has edited the book Embassies Under Siege and written articles in Orbis and Diplomatic Record on the peace process in El Salvador. Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Joseph Sullivan served in the US Public Health Service for three years.
Ambassador Sullivan received a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew. He is originally from Boston and now resides in Virginia.
He was born in Boston and graduated from Tufts and Georgetown Graduate School. He worked for the US Public Health Service for three years before entering the Foreign Service in 1970.