Lesley Warner

Dr. Lesley Anne Warner has two decades of experience as a foreign
policy expert at the intersection of political transitions,
stabilization, and security cooperation. She was most recently a
Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Democracy,
Human Rights, and Governance at the U.S. Agency for International
Development, where she oversaw the Anti-Corruption Center;
Justice, Rights, and Security office; and the Program Office, which
handled the Bureau’s budget, communications, and legislative
engagement. While at the DRG Bureau, she represented the U.S.
Government in engagements with foreign officials, implementing
partners, and members of civil society in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America, and was part of the executive leadership team that oversaw a foreign assistance budget
of $261 million across 72 countries to advance efforts to protect human rights defenders and
mitigate democratic backsliding.

Dr. Warner was previously a Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, where she served as her principal adviser on Sub-Saharan Africa. During her
time at USUN, she originated the concept behind the African Democratic and Political Transitions
(ADAPT) Initiative, which became a deliverable for the U.S.-African Leaders' Summit in 2022.
From 2015 to 2021, Dr. Warner was a Senior Professional Staff Member on the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, where she served as the principal adviser to Chairmen Eliot Engel and Gregory
Meeks on Sub-Saharan Africa. While on the Committee, she authored the Sudan Democratic
Transition, Accountability, and Financial Transparency Act of 2020, which became law as part of
the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act.

Dr. Warner holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London, a M.A. in Security Studies
from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a B.A. in
International Relations from Carleton College, where she was awarded the Boren National
Security Education Program Scholarship and a Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
She is the author of Military Integration during War-to-Peace Transitions: South Sudan’s Attempt
to Manage Armed Groups, 2006-13, Routledge, 2023, and her research and analysis have been
widely published and cited in prominent international television, radio, print, and online outlets.
Dr. Warner is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a 2018 Next Generation National
Security Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and an International Career
Advancement Program (ICAP) Fellow.