Mission Director Leslie Reed joins USAD/Jordan as its new mission director after successfully leading USAID missions in the Middle East and Africa. Ms. Reed served as USAID/Egypt mission director from August 2020 to July 2023; during that time the mission supported the Government of Egypt’s response to COVID-19, elevated climate across the entire portfolio, initiated a public-private partnership to conserve the Red Sea Coral Reef at COP27, galvanized women’s empowerment through a new gender community of practice, and promoted staff leadership and professional development through the Mission of Leaders program. Prior to Egypt, Ms. Reed served as mission director in South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda. In South Sudan, she collaborated with the mission’s humanitarian assistance team to respond to historic floods, rising food insecurity and COVID-19. As Mission Director for Ethiopia from 2016 to 2019, she led a major effort to support the reform efforts of the new Prime Minister and responses to several humanitarian crises. As mission director for Uganda from 2012–2016, Ms. Reed pioneered the Mission of Leaders Program that received agency-wide accolades for empowering staff to lead at all levels, resulting in greater development results. Ms. Reed also served as deputy regional mission director for USAID’s Southern Africa Mission; as USAID’s Assistant General Counsel for Africa in Washington D.C.; and as a Foreign Service regional legal advisor in Lima, Peru, and Accra, Ghana. Before joining USAID, Ms. Reed was a senior project finance officer and assistant general counsel for the Export-Import Bank of the United States and an associate with the law firm of Morrison & Foerster in Los Angeles. Ms. Reed is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and the University of California, San Diego.