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 Côte d’Ivoire
CANDIDATE: Jessica Davis Ba
Jessica Davis Ba is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor. She served as Senior Coordinator and Special Advisor for Africa in the Office of the Vice President, Executive Office of the President, Washington, D.C. Before returning to Washington, Ms. Davis Ba served as the Chargé d’affaires, a.i. of the U.S. Embassy N’Djamena, Chad and prior to that she was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the African Union and the U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ms. Davis Ba’s record of success as a leader, coupled with her considerable experience as a policy advisor and practitioner over the course of two decades of diplomatic service, make her an excellent candidate for Ambassador to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.
Among her other assignments, Ms. Davis Ba served as Deputy Program Director at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Special Assistant in the State Department Operation Center’s Office of Crisis Management and Strategy and as Deputy Director, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq. Her extensive regional expertise includes service as Deputy Counselor for Economic Affairs and Regional Labor Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, as Political/Economic Officer for the Somalia Affairs Unit in the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, as the Chief of the Political, Economic and Commercial Section of the U.S. Embassy in Conakry, Guinea, and as a Political Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ms. Davis Ba earned her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2020 State Department One Team Award and many performance awards. She speaks French and Spanish.