Sharon L. Cromer, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Career Minister, was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of The Gambia on January 27, 2022. Ambassador Cromer was nominated by President Joseph Biden on June 23, 2021 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 18, 2021.
She served as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director at the U.S. Embassies in Accra, Ghana (2017-2021), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2013-2017), Abuja, Nigeria (2007-2009), and Accra, Ghana (2002-2007). In Washington, she served as the USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau of Management (2009-2010), and as the Acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator and Acting Assistant Administrator in the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (2009). She also served as the USAID Acting Chief Human Capital Officer and Acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Human Capital and Talent Management (2016).
Ms. Cromer’s other foreign assignments include Indonesia (1998-2002), Senegal (1991-1996), Ivory Coast (1990-1991), and Pakistan (1988-1990).
Ambassador Cromer graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and from Georgetown University Law Center with a Juris Doctor degree. She is a recipient of a Presidential Rank Award, the USAID Administrator’s Reengineering Award, a State Department Superior Honor Award, and multiple performance awards for her more than three decades of service.