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BIOGRAPHIES

Ambassador

Mission Director Denise A. Herbol

Denise A. Herbol joined USAID/Lebanon as Mission Director on October 13, 2008. A career Senior Foreign Service Officer, Ms. Herbol is responsible for leading and managing a rapidly growing program in Lebanon.  The focus of these programs address both democratic and economic challenges facing Lebanon following the civil war from 1975 until 1991 and the war in the summer of 2006. Legislative elections held in June 2005 created opportunities to engage with Lebanon’s sovereign politically elected government.  Activities include Economic Growth and Agriculture, Governing Justly and Democratically, Investing in People,  Environment and Water Resource Management, and reconstruction. USAID’s program in FY08 is $44.6 million and the program is estimated to grow to $67.5 million in FY09.  This complex portfolio is implemented by a staff of 10 locally employed staff and 4 US Direct Hire.

Prior to Lebanon, Ms. Herbol served 13 months as Deputy Mission Director in USAID/Iraq from August 2007 to September 2008.  One of the most complex and challenging USAID programs, Ms. Herbol shared responsibility for oversight of a 1.1 billion program in FY 2007.  In addition to overseeing programs in Democracy and Governance, Capacity Development, and Economic Growth, Ms. Herbol was the lead coordinator for the US Embassy for the Internally Displaced Persons program.

Ms. Herbol was Supervisory Executive Officer to USAID/Colombia from 2004 to 2007.  Ms. Herbol participated as a member of the 43-section interagency team in Colombia to develop a consolidated USG multi-year country strategy and a country operational plan to address counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism. From 2003 to 2004 Ms. Herbol was the Supervisory Executive Officer in India. From 1999 to 2003, Ms. Herbol was the Supervisory Executive Officer in the Regional Mission of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova and provided critical security support to all three Missions in the wake of September 11, 2001. Ms. Herbol has served with USAID since 1981 where she first started work as a contractor with USAID in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DROC).  She joined USAID as a Direct Hire in 1987 and served her first five tours as an Executive Officer in India, Ghana, Belize, Albania and Uganda from 1988 to 1999.  Ms. Herbol was PSC contractor for USAID in Kinshasa, DROC from 1981 to 1987 and a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in Lubondai, DROC from 1980 to 1981.

Ms. Herbol earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980.  She has had extensive contract training and in January 2007, was the first AID employee to participate in the National Security Decision Making Workshop at the U.S. Air War College in Alabama.  She has received numerous awards for exceptional service.  Ms. Herbol was born in Pennsylvania and has three children, one in high school and two in college.  The eldest is a member of the Air Force ROTC at Penn State University.