Christina Hardaway

Christina Hardaway has been a member of the U.S. Foreign Service for ten years. She currently serves as the Deputy Chief of the Political-Economic section at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon. In this role, she leads the Embassy’s commercial, economic, and environment portfolios.

Christina has served in the Bureau of African Affairs as the Cameroon desk officer, acting as a

liaison on U.S.-Cameroon bilateral issues. Prior to that, she did a detail with the U.S. African

Development Foundation (USADF) as a liaison between the State Department and USADF. She

served as Gender, Health & Entrepreneurship officer for the Africa Bureau, coordinating the

Bureau’s policy and programs in the areas of gender, health, and entrepreneurship across the

State Department and the U.S. interagency. This included liaising across the U.S. government

on programs such as the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), managing the

Africa Women, Peace and Security program, and leading communications on the Bureau’s

responses to health crises in Africa, such as the Ebola crisis. Christina also had a special role in

integrating gender into broader economic and security policy and programs in Africa.

Prior to serving in the Africa Bureau, Christina served at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague,

Netherlands covering the energy, environment, science, technology, and health portfolio.

Christina led the Embassy’s energy outreach to the Dutch government and Dutch companies,

advanced U.S.-Dutch cooperation on climate change and water management, and managed U.S.-

Dutch donor coordination on mutual global health and environment programs.

Christina’s first Foreign Service assignment was as a consular officer at the U.S. Consulate in

Monterrey, Mexico. Christina adjudicated U.S. visas for visitors wishing to visit or work in the

United States and provided services to U.S. citizens living in Mexico, such as passport services

and emergency services.

Christina is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and an alumna of Atlanta Public Schools. Christina

holds a Master’s in Public Administration as well as a Master’s in International Relations from

Syracuse University. Christina received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Emory

University.

Christina is dedicated to community service and is a huge champion of diversity and inclusion initiatives in foreign affairs, serving on the boards of the Pickering and Rangel Fellows Association (PRFA) and Thursday Network-Greater Washington Urban League, and as a member of the international Career Advancement Program (ICAP) Fellowship Alumni Association. Christina currently serves as the Chair of Embassy Yaounde’s Diversity and Inclusion Council.