Monica Stein-Olson

Monica Stein-Olson
Mission Director

Monica Stein-Olson currently serves as USAID’s Mission Director for the West Bank and Gaza. She previously served as Senior Development Advisor for Libya. Stein-Olson is a 25 year veteran of USAID's Foreign Service. She has served a total of 15 years on the African continent with five years as USAID/Morocco Mission Director and 10 years in sub-Saharan Africa (Mali, Burundi, Kenya, and Tanzania). Monica has also served in the Philippines and Russia. Her overseas responsibilities on behalf of the agency primarily included financial controls and management.

Most recently, Stein-Olson was on detail at the U.S. Department of State as the Deputy Special Coordinator for Middle East Assistance, served as USAID’s Deputy Assistant Administrator for Management, and was on faculty at the National War College.

Before joining USAID, Stein-Olson served at a number of distinguished institutions including the Brookings Institute and the Middle East Institute. Her experience also includes teaching English in Japan, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Thailand and Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the West Bank.

In a previous life, Stein-Olson worked in the private sector for Hewlett-Packard and IBM. She is the recipient of numerous performance awards, including most recently a Presidential Performance Award (2009).

She holds an MBA from the University of Arizona and a B.S. from the University of Illinois. Fluent in French, she is an avid runner, and has been featured in Runners’ World Magazine.

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