Carol J. Lancaster

Carol Lancaster is Associate Professor and Director of the Mortara Center for International Studies at Georgetown University. Between 1972 and 1981, she served in various areas of the U.S. government including the Office of Management and Budget, the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State, the US Senate and House of Representatives, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

In 1981, she joined the faculty at Georgetown University. Between 1993 and 1996, Professor Lancaster returned to government to serve as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Professor Lancaster has written several books on African development and U.S. foreign assistance, including Transforming U.S. Aid: United States Assistance in the 21st Century, which was published by the Institute for International Economics, and Aid to Africa: So Much to do, So Little Done. She has also written or edited several other books and several dozen articles published in scholarly journals and periodicals. Her most recent books include Organizing US Foreign Aid (Brookings Institution, 2005) and Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming).

Professor Lancaster chaired the board of directors at the Center for Economic Development and Population Activities as well as WorldSpace Foundation. She has also served on the boards of Volunteers in Technical Assistance, Pearl S. Buck International, and on the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid. She is currently a board member of Vital Voices, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, World Education, Women in International Security, and a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Committee on the New Partnership for African Development.