Cynthia Efird

U.S. Department of State

Cynthia Grissom Efird, a career Senior Foreign Service officer with the Department of State, has worked on strategic information and public diplomacy, international trade negotiations, conflict resolution, and democracy development in Central and Eastern European countries and Africa for more than thirty years.

Before being detailed to Georgetown by the State Department in 2009, Ambassador Efird served for two years as the Deputy Commandant for International Affairs at the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She received an honorary degree and the U.S. Armys civilian service award for her contributions to the teaching of diplomacy in the USAWC curriculum, her own teaching on Africa, strategic communication and diplomacy, and her leadership of the International Fellows Program.

From August 2004 to 2007, Ambassador Efird was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Angola. During her tenure as Ambassador, the United States Mission consolidated its diplomatic presence in Angola, moving into a permanent Chancery. Angola became the largest African oil exporter to the United States and increased bilateral non-petroleum economic ties, as well. The United States made major contributions to the Angolan post-Civil War reconstruction through USAID programs to improve democracy, economic conditions, and human rights, the Presidents Malaria Initiative, and through funding to combat HIV-AIDS. The two countries instituted military cooperative efforts, including the first bilateral medical exercise, the first ship visits, and IMET exchanges.

Before being nominated as Ambassador, Cynthia Efird directed all public diplomacy and public affairs for the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State. From 2001 to 2002, she was the Special Adviser to the Associate United States Trade Representative, focusing on the African Growth and Opportunity Act, World Trade Organization, and other trade negotiations.

She has held many diplomatic positions overseas during her career. After joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1977, she served with U.S. Embassies in Yugoslavia (1978-1982), the German Democratic Republic (1983-1985), and Mozambique (1988-1989). In Vienna, Austria (1989-1993), she was on the staff of both the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), as well as volunteering for temporary duty in Somalia with the U.S. Liaison Mission to the UN peacekeeping force (UNOSOM). As Deputy Counselor for Public Affairs in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 1997 to 2000, she supervised public diplomacy staffs in Moscow and three regional consulates. In 2000, the U.S. Government detailed her to the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) to oversee post-conflict reconstruction of the media sector in Kosovo under the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

Ambassador Efird grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where she attended Kingswood School Cranbrook. She holds a BSFS degree from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and Masters degrees from Duke University and the War College of the National Defense University, which named her a Distinguished Graduate. She has received several Meritorious Honor and Superior Honor Awards. Ambassador Efird is married to Neil Efird, a graduate of West Point, a Vietnam War veteran, and a retired Foreign Service officer. They have one daughter Elisabeth, a lawyer in Chicago.