Howard F. Jeter retired from the State Department in 2003 after a distinguished 27-year career in the Foreign Service. He retired with the rank of Career Minister. Currently, Ambassador Jeter is the Principal at Four Ways Enterprise, LLC.

Ambassador Jeter was the U. S. Ambassador to Nigeria from 2000-2003. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, State Department Director for West African Affairs, President Clinton’s Special Envoy for Liberia, and Ambassador to Botswana. Ambassador Jeter was Deputy Chief of Mission and later Charge d’Affaires, a.i. in Lesotho and Namibia. He also had multi-year assignments in Tanzania and Mozambique.

Ambassador Jeter was the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, including the Presidential Meritorious Service Award, Superior Honor Awards, and several Performance Awards. He received the prestigious Bennie Trailblazer Award from Morehouse College and the International Peace and Justice Award from the Rainbow-Push Coalition, founded and headed by Reverend Jesse Jackson. Ambassador Jeter is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Ambassador Jeter earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree, with Honors, from Morehouse College. He later received a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics from Columbia University and a second Master’s Degree in African Studies from UCLA. After retiring from the State Department, Ambassador Jeter became Executive Vice President of a prominent Washington, D.C. international business advisory and consulting group. From 2006 to 2008, Ambassador Jeter served as Interim President of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. He also chaired the U.S. Export-Import Bank Advisory Committee on Africa.

Ambassador Jeter is a member of the Board of Directors of Africare, the Morehouse College Andrew Young Center for International Affairs, the Morehouse College President’s Renaissance Commission, the Florida A & M University International Advisory Board, and in Nigeria, the International Advisory Boards of the Ken Nnamani Center for Leadership and Development and the Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation. For the past two years, Ambassador Jeter has chaired the Charles B. Rangel Fellowship Selection Panel, in collaboration with Howard University and the Department of State.

Ambassador Jeter lived and worked in Africa for more than 18 years. He is married and has two adult children.