Ambassador Susan D. Page was sworn in as ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan on November 16, 2011. Following her assignment as the first U.S. ambassador to the world’s newest nation, she served as Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., to the U.S. Mission to the African Union/Permanent Representative to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (2015-16). Ambassador Page was also deputy assistant secretary of State for African Affairs (2009-2011), Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan (2014-2015), and leader of the multi-agency Security Governance Initiative (SGI) for Ghana (2015-2016). Page has received several top awards from the State Department for her work on Sudan, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

From 2002 to 2005 Page was Legal and Political Adviser to the IGAD Secretariat for Peace in Sudan and played a key role in the mediation and peace process that resulted in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) for Sudan that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war. Subsequently, Amb. Page headed the UN Peacekeeping Mission for Sudan’s (UNMIS) Rule of Law and Corrections Advisory Unit in Khartoum, Sudan (2005-2007). Page also served as Regional Director for Southern and East Africa at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) (2007-2009).

Ambassador Page began her foreign affairs career at the U.S. Department of State in 1991 and served as Attorney-Adviser for Politico-Military Affairs, USAID Regional Legal Adviser in Kenya and Botswana covering East and Southern Africa and Political Officer in Rwanda. She has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a senior legal expert in Rwanda and Sudan.

On November 1, 2017, Page was appointed Assistant Secretary General and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) for the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH); prior to that, Page was Deputy SRSG responsible for the Rule of Law at the predecessor mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH. On May 4, 2018, The UN Secretary General appointed Page as his Special Adviser on Rule of Law, Global Focal Point Review Implementation. She is currently serving as a visiting professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame for the academic year (2019-2020).

Amb. Page received her Juris Doctor (JD) from Harvard Law School, her A.B. in English With High Distinction from the University of Michigan and a Rotary International Postgraduate Fellowship to Nepal where she conducted research on women’s and children’s rights. Ambassador Page is originally from Chicago; she is married and has one son. She is fluent in French and an excellent euchre player.