WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced that Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Secretary (ES) Alonzo L. Fulgham has been designated by the White House as Acting Administrator of the agency. Fulgham also serves as Coordinator of the Agency's Transition Efforts. He has served as the COO and ES since August 2006.

A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Fulgham served as Mission Director in Afghanistan from June 2005 to July 2006. Prior to that, he served as the Director for South Asian Affairs in the Bureau for Asia and the Near East (ANE). In 2003, he joined the ANE Bureau as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East.

In September 2001, Fulgham served as acting USAID Deputy Director for Serbia and Montenegro. He has also served in Jordan and at the USAID Regional Mission in the Caucasus.

He is a member of the board of directors of the Society for International Development. Fulgham is the recipient of a Presidential Meritorious Rank Award for his work as Mission Director in Afghanistan and the Agency's Superior Achievement Award for his accomplishments as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Secretary and has also received numerous other performance awards.

Fulgham joined USAID in 1989 and was selected as an International Development Intern in 1992. Fulgham has a Bachelor of Science from Fisk University and a Master of Arts from the National Defense University. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Haiti from 1984 to 1986 and speaks Creole and Spanish. He is married and has three children.

For more information about USAID, visit www.usaid.gov.