WASHINGTON, D.C. – Michelle Godette was sworn in today as the U.S. Agency for International Development Mission Director to Guinea and Sierra Leone. The mission is based in Conakry, Guinea, but supports programs in both Guinea and Sierra Leone in agriculture, democracy and human rights, environment, gender equality, and global health.

 Prior to this assignment, Ms. Godette served as deputy mission director in Nigeria, helping to lead the implementation of one of the U.S. Government’s largest social and economic development portfolios in sub-Saharan Africa. She worked to ensure that USAID’s programs and results in economic growth, environment, education, peace and democratic governance, health, population and nutrition were aligned with the U.S. Government’s foreign assistance and national security objectives for Nigeria.

 A senior USAID Foreign Service Officer, Ms. Godette has more than 15 years of service and the rank of counselor. She joined USAID as an attorney-advisor for Africa and served as senior regional legal advisor in Southern Africa and in South America. Ms. Godette then served as assistant general counsel for Asia and the Middle East in USAID’s Office of the General Counsel where she distinguished herself as a senior advisor to Agency leadership.

 Ms. Godette earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from Howard University in Washington D.C. and pursued additional linguistics studies at L’Université de Caen in France. She has a Juris Doctor degree from American University Law School. Before joining USAID, she had a successful career as a prosecutor and family law litigator in the D.C. Office of the Attorney General.