Annenberg Washington Series

Director
Office of African Regional and Security Affairs
U.S. Department of State

Louis Mazel is a career Foreign Service Officer who joined the State Department in 1984. He has spent most of his career in Africa having served in Mali, Togo, Namibia, Ethiopia, South Africa and most recently as Deputy Chief of Mission in Monrovia, Liberia.

In his current position Lou overseas all State Department-funded programs in the areas of peacekeeping training and support, and security sector reform.

Lou graduated from Stony Brook University with a BA in Political Science and holds a Masters in Communications from Boston University’s School of Communications. He attended the Masters Program at the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy majoring in Developmental Economics and International Relations.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service he was an administrative aide to Congressmen Michael Harrington (D-MA) and the President of Mazel Political Communications, a Boston-based consulting firm.

He is the recipient of the State Department’s first-ever Worldwide Award for Human Rights for programs he initiated in Namibia to curb sexual violence against women and children. He has spoken widely in Africa on U.S. foreign policy on the continent, U.S. assistance in areas of health and education and the 2004 U.S. presidential elections. Prior to national elections in Liberia in 2005, Lou addressed numerous youth organizations urging them to support Liberia’s democratic transition and to accept the results of the nation’s first-ever competitive multi-party elections.