Dr. Lesley Anne Warner joined the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance at USAID as Deputy Assistant Administrator in December 2023. She was previously a Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, where she served as her principal adviser on Sub-Saharan Africa. During her time at USUN, she originated the concept behind the African Democratic and Political Transitions (ADAPT) initiative, which became a deliverable for the U.S.-African Leaders' Summit in 2022.
From 2015 to 2021, Dr. Warner was a Senior Professional Staff Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she served as the principal adviser to Chairman Eliot Engel and Gregory Meeks on Sub-Saharan Africa. While on the Committee, she authored the Sudan Democratic Transition, Accountability, and Financial Transparency Act of 2020, which became law as part of the FY21 NDAA.
Prior to her work on the Hill, she spent a decade providing analytic support to U.S. government clients across the interagency as a Research Fellow at the Center for Complex Operations at National Defense University, an Africa Research Analyst at CNA, and a Research Assistant at the RAND Corporation.
Dr. Warner holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London, a M.A. in Security Studies from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a B.A. in International Relations from Carleton College.