Media gallery

Fellow in Residence

Ambassador (Dr.) Robin R. Sanders
Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, ECOWAS, and the Republic of Congo
April 2 – 5, 2013

Public Address: “Africa 2013: The Way Ahead”
Younts Conference Center at Furman University.
April 2, 2013

As a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, Ambassador (Dr.) Robin Renee Sanders spent time engaging in small group conversations and classroom discussions and speaking to over 200 members of the community and Furman students.  Her public address, “Africa 2013: The Way Ahead,” used a broad lens to provide a balanced view of the socio-political and economic changes in the 48 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. The region is grappling with significant economic and social challenges as it strives to move forward toward “a more perfect Continent.”

Highlights of her visit to Furman

Ambassador Sanders was on Furman’s campus from April 2 – 5, 2013. During that time she engaged in numerous discussions and conversations with students and faculty, including:

  • Dinner with Hollingsworth and Townes Scholars
  • Breakfasts and lunches with small groups of Riley Institute Advance Team members
  • Classes on sustainability’s relationship to science, corporations, food security, and economic development
  • Classes on poverty
  • Forum with faculty at the Shi Center for Sustainability on Food Security
  • Dinner in downtown Greenville with Furman faculty and staff

About Ambassador Sanders

Ambassador Sanders served as U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the ECOWAS regional organization from 2007–2010 and to the Republic of the Congo from 2002–2005. Prior to that she was the international affairs advisor and deputy commandant of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces—one of the U.S. military’s premier colleges at the National Defense University in Washington, DC—where she also taught international affairs, national security issues, and African studies. Sanders has served twice as the director for Africa at the National Security Council at the White House. She has a range of foreign and public policy analytical experience; technical expertise in public diplomacy; and best practice expertise on energy sector reform.

Sanders is the owner of FE3DS, LLC, and board chair of Songhai Integrative Farms Systems, an African organization that focuses on the key global issues of food security, agriculture, sustainable environment, energy, economics, youth education and entrepreneurship. Sanders is also founder of the FEEEDS® Advocacy Initiative on these same issues in Washington, DC and at Robert Morris University (RMU) in Pittsburgh, and a RMU Board Trustee.

Sanders is the recipient of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Civilian Honor Award (one of the highest U.S. military civilian honor awards); three State Department Superior Honor Awards; four State Department Meritorious Honor Awards; the Presidential Medal of Honor from the President of the Republic of Congo; and was recently inducted into the U.S. National Honor and Scholar Society for her leadership, public service and academic work. She is a board member of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Human Rights Watch and a global advisor to Operation Hope—a non-profit organization focused on at-risk communities around the world. Her most recent State Department assignment was as international affairs advisor and communication and outreach director to Africare.

Sanders holds a PhD from RMU; MA and MS degrees in international relations, African studies, and communications from Ohio University; and a BA in communications from Hampton University.