USAID Senior Official Wins Prestigious Service to America Award
Mark Ward, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Asia and the Near East bureau, was presented the International Affairs Medal at the Service to America Medal annual awards program. The Service to America Medals are sponsored by the Atlantic Media Company and the Partnership for Public Service and recognize the accomplishments of America's public servants.
Having served USAID in the Foreign Service for 20 years, Ward is being acknowledged for his leadership of the U.S. recovery and reconstruction efforts after the Asia Tsunami in 2004 and the South Asia earthquake of 2005.
With the onset of the Tsunami, which claimed nearly 200,000 lives, USAID was able to respond immediately, providing life-saving food, water, medical care and shelter. Under Ward's leadership as the head of the Agency's Tsunami task force, longer-term projects such as the reconstruction of water systems and roads were begun. Key initiatives that Ward steered included the rehabilitation of 50 miles of the major coastal road in Aceh, Indonesia, and the reconstruction of the 160-meter Arugam Bay Bridge in Sri Lanka which was destroyed by the tsunami.
A former USAID Mission Director in Pakistan, Ward's service as chair of the Agency's South Asia Earthquake Task Force, provided invaluable insight helping to create innovative strategies to provide relief for earthquake victims, including support from public/private partnerships. Continuing this expertise, he serves as the U.S. Government advisor for the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund, a consortium of American corporate CEOs who were asked by President Bush to raise private funding for relief and reconstruction.
Ward, married with two sons, is a native of San Francisco and received both his undergraduate and juris doctorate degrees from the University of California at Berkley.
For more information on USAID's Tsunami and South Asia Earthquake efforts please visit the following web pages:
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/south_asia_quake/
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