Alan Eastham has been nominated by the President on June 3, 2008 to become the next ambassador to the Republic of the Congo.  He was confirmed by the Senate on August 1, 2008 and sworn in on August 22, 2008.  He arrives at post on October 17, 2008.

Ambassador Eastham is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.  He joined the State Department as a junior officer in January, 1975.  His most recent assignment was as Ambassador to Malawi from October 2005 - August 2008.  Prior to this he was the Director of the Office of Central African Affairs (August 2002-May 2005), overseeing relations between the U.S. and ten countries in the center of the African continent.  
 
He began his career as a Vice Consul in the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal (1975-1978), followed by Washington assignments in public affairs (1978-80), the counterterrorism office 1980-82), as Sri Lanka/Maldives desk officer (1982-3) and India desk officer (1983-4). 
 
In 1984, he was assigned as Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, a post he held for three years.  In 1987, he returned to Washington as Special Assistant for Near East and South Asia in the office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. His involvement in U.S. relations with Africa began in 1989, when he was assigned as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, followed in 1992 by a two-year tour as Political Counselor in Kinshasa (then Zaire).
 
From Zaire, he was assigned in 1994 as U.S. Consul General in Bordeaux, France, and in 1995 became Political Counselor in New Delhi.  In 1997, he moved to Islamabad, Pakistan as Deputy Chief of Mission and in 1999 again returned to Washington as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs.  After serving as Acting Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs from January to May, 2001, he was named Special Negotiator for Conflict Diamonds in the Economics and Business Bureau, a position he held from September, 2001 to August, 2002.
 
Mr. Eastham was born and raised in Dumas, Arkansas.  He holds a B.A. degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and a J.D. from Georgetown University.  He is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.