Sean Jones assumed leadership of USAID Ethiopia in July of 2019. USAID Ethiopia is one of the largest USAID missions in Africa and is a focus country for presidential initiatives covering HIV and AIDS, malaria, child survival, agricultural growth, food security and nutrition, climate change and energy. The mission’s portfolio also has a robust basic education program and activities that promote good governance and prevent conflicts. The mission supports regional initiatives with African Union whose seat is located in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

Prior to this, Sean served as the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Food Security, which leads the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative. In this role, he oversees the strategic direction and implementation of Feed the Future programs in the field and the bureau’s efforts to engage and build partnerships with the private sector. Before joining BFS, he served as the Deputy Coordinator for Power Africa.

As a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Sean has also held various leadership positions throughout USAID. In Mexico, Sean served as Mission Director, where he focused programming on public-private partnerships, justice reform, anti-corruption, and citizen security. In Yemen, he led the Mission’s technical program, designing and initiating a stabilization strategy that integrated health, education, economic reform, governance, and rapid response investments to help strengthen formal and informal governance structures. In Colombia, Sean oversaw the whole-of-government alternative development program that yielded significant gains in control over ungoverned territories and growth and agriculture reconstruction program. In Iraq, he directed the Agency’s economic growth and agriculture reconstruction program. In Jordan, he managed new program designs, economic policy, and youth engagement initiatives. Sean began his USAID career as a Presidential Management Fellow, working on project finance and the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Before joining USAID, Sean was a strategic consultant, trade analyst, and business operations specialist in the United States and in China. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. He speaks Spanish and is conversational in Arabic and Japanese.