Events Calendar

On Wednesday, October 25, the Strauss Center and LBJ School of Public Affairs will host Ambassador (ret) Larry André, Visiting Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, as he discusses how the State Department operates. What is an Ambassador? How does someone become an Ambassador? What is a Foreign Service Officer? What is a Civil Service employee? Who are locally recruited colleagues? What is an embassy? How is it organized? Ambassador André (ret) will end with a Q&A for all of your outstanding questions he didn’t answer during the presentation.

Biography: Ambassador (Ret.) Larry E. André, Jr., retired from the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service in May 2023 after a 37-year career with the federal government (3 ½ years with Peace Corps, first as a volunteer for two years then as a staff member, then 33 ½ years with the State Department’s Foreign Service). He served in a mix of leadership, policy, and management positions.

Ambassador (Ret.) André’s leadership positions included Ambassador to Somalia (January 2022-May 2023), Ambassador to Djibouti (January 2018-January 2021), and Ambassador to Mauritania (September 2014-November 2017). He also served as Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy South Sudan; Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Tanzania; Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Sierra Leone; Director, Office of the Presidential Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, and Deputy Director, Office of West African Affairs.

Ambassador (Ret.) André’s management (“overseas operations”) positions included Deputy Director, African Affairs Bureau’s Executive Office; Management Officer, U.S. Embassy Guinea; Administrative Officer, U.S. Consulate Kaduna (northern Nigeria); Deputy Management Counselor, U.S. Embassy Iraq; and Supervisory General Services Officer, U.S. Embassy Bangladesh.

Ambassador (Ret.) André’s policy positions (advocacy, diplomatic reporting and programs) included Political Counselor, U.S. Embassy Kenya; Political/Consular Officer, U.S. Embassy Cameroon, Economic/Commercial officer, U.S. Embassy Bangladesh, and Regional Environment Officer for East Africa covering 14 countries from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador (Ret.) André worked in Chad to assist refugees returning home following the war with Libya, and served both as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal and as Peace Corps staff in Washington, DC. As an undergraduate, he was a researcher at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government in Claremont, California. He speaks French. He, his wife Ouroukou, and their son Isidore reside in Caldwell County, Texas. He has Cal-Tex roots, growing up initially in California and then relocating to Fort Worth, Texas in the 8th grade.