Hurried unceremoniously off the campus of Kenya's University of Nairobi in 1982, Jendayi E. Frazer can still picture the armed soldiers lining the streets. A coup d'état of the government was under way, making the school no safe haven for the undergraduate foreign exchange student from Stanford, or anyone else.
"The government survived the attempt, but I ended up coming back to the U.S. early," says Frazer. "The whole incident left me with a feeling of unfinished business and sparked my interest in the issues of military and civilian rule."
Frazer returned to the continent in several governmental roles, culminating in becoming the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the George W. Bush administration. During her tenure, she used diplomacy to help solve military and political disputes in numerous countries. She also contributed to U.S. efforts for funding HIV/AIDS and malaria relief. Ironically, she also intervened in Kenya to reach an accord on its contested 2007 presidential election.
Earlier this year, Frazer joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon with a joint appointment in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences' Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the H. John Heinz III College's School of Public Policy and Management. She will also be associated with the university's Washington, D.C.-based Center for International Politics and Innovation and the D.C. Policy Center of the Heinz College.
"Carnegie Mellon is a good fit for me," says Frazer, who noted the school's reputation for interdisciplinary learning and research. "This is a tremendous opportunity to join a world-class faculty." In addition to the public service professor's classroom duties, she is working to bridge computer scientists and engineers with the Rwandan government to develop their ideas into a center for technological excellence.
—Chris A. Weber
