Ambassador Brenda Brown Schoonover is past president of American Diplomacy Publishers and has been a board member for over 15 years. She was U.S. Ambassador to Togo, West Africa. A retired professional Foreign Service Officer, with 32 years of U.S. government service, she was among the first volunteers at the inception of the U.S Peace Corps (PC). In addition, she held staff positions at the PC Headquarters in Washington, D.C and in Tanzania.
Before joining the State Department, she accompanied her late husband, Richard Schoonover, on his tours with the United States Information Agency (USIA) to Nigeria and Tunisia. Subsequently, the couple had tandem assignments in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Belgium. She was Diplomat-in-Resident at the University of North Carolina (UNC) followed by an assignment to the U.S. Embassy in Belgium as Deputy Chief of Mission.
Among her advisory and board of director roles, the Ambassador serves on the N.C. Advisory Committee to U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Med Aditus, and Carolina Friends of the Foreign Service. She completed her tenure as president of the UNC Woman’s Club in June 2020.