Pratt, Jonathan – Republic of Djibouti – May 2020

REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

SUBJECT:            Ambassadorial Nomination:  Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)

POST:                  Republic of Djibouti

CANDIDATE:     Jonathan Pratt

Jonathan Pratt, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, currently serves as the Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs of the Department of State.  Prior to that, he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and as the Office Director for Pakistan Affairs in the State Department.  He served earlier as the Political Counselor at Embassy Islamabad, as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and as the Political and Economic Section Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan.  His demonstrated success in leading interagency teams, including in highly challenging security environments, his considerable service in Africa, and his broad experience in managing the complexities of policy making and policy implementation, make him an excellent candidate to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Djibouti.

Mr. Pratt’s other assignments include service as a Management  Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Luanda, Angola, as a General Services Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan and as a Political and Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.  He also served in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the State Department as a Presidential Management Intern.  Before joining the government, Mr. Pratt was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea-Bissau and Primary School Bilingual Teacher for Teach for America, in Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Pratt earned his B.A. degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and his M.A. from the University of California, San Diego.   He is the recipient of multiple State Department awards including the James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence and the Director General’s Award for Reporting.  His foreign languages are Chinese, Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese.