Elise Jensen is the Mission Director for USAID/Iraq. Her previous assignments have included Director at USAID's Frankfurt Support Center (FSC) where she directed USAID’s Middle East Regional Platform (MERP) and administratively oversaw its Office of Support Operations (OSO). Ms. Jensen was also previously the Director of the Office of Country Support in USAID/Washington’s Bureau for Global Health, where her team supported Missions to achieve USAID goals in the health sector. Ms. Jensen also served as Chief of USAID/Ethiopia’s Health Office, overseeing one of the Agency’s largest health programs. She began her career with USAID leading health programs in Tanzania and Malawi.
Additionally, Ms. Jensen spent two years in Afghanistan as a General Development Officer serving at both Provincial and Regional command and served as Deputy USAID Mission Director to South Sudan.
Ms. Jensen embarked her international development career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Haiti and worked for an international nongovernmental organization, Project HOPE, as Senior Technical Advisor as well as Regional Director for Africa.
Ms. Jensen received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Loyola Marymount University and a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has two daughters.