Frankie Reed is a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service. Her varied overseas assignments have taken her from Africa to Europe to the islands of the South Pacific. She returned recently from an assignment as Consul General in Melbourne, Australia, preceded by three years as Ambassador to Fiji.
A member of the California Bar, Ambassador Reed
has a J.D. from the University of California Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts from Howard University School of Communications. She also studied at the Kogod School of Business, American University.
Ambassador Reed is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and returns often to Dakar, Senegal where she taught English as a Foreign Language. She began her Foreign Service career in Yaounde, Cameroon, followed by tours in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dakar, Senegal.
Frankie Reed moved over to the Asia Pacific region when she worked on the staff of Congressman Howard Berman , then the Minority Chairman of the Asia Pacific Subcommittee, House International Relations Committee. An assignment in the Office of Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Affairs led to a three year stint in Apia, Samoa as Deputy Chief of Mission to the Ambassador, resident in New Zealand. She returned to Africa as Deputy Chief of Mission in Conakry, Guinea and
then took up the position of Consul General in Strasbourg, France.
Having attended the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg as a law student, Ms. Reed was well versed to assume the unusual assignment which included responsibilities as the Deputy U.S. Observer to the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. She returned to the University of California Berkeley as Diplomat in Residence in 2008. Her appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asia and the Pacific followed where she once again took on responsibilities for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. President Obama appointed Ms. Reed to the post of Ambassador to Fiji in 2011. The Ambassador also is accredited to Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Nauru. In September 2022, President Biden designated Amb. Frankie Reed as the first-ever U.S. Envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum. In this new capacity, the Ambassador will expand U.S. ties and coordination with the Pacific Islands Forum and its members.
After serving as a Senior Advisor in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in the Department of State, Frankie retired to Hawaii. She continues to mentor youth interested in legal and international careers with a focus on underrepresented groups, notably women and minorities.
She credits much of her success in overseas assignments to the support of women’s organizations which accepted her as a member, including the Samoan Women’s Association, the Kenyan Association of Women Lawyers, and the U.S. based Corporate Counsels Women of Color. Her early work with U.S. Legal Aid Services led to a positive exchange with the first North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency program for girls interested in pursuing a legal career.
An early advocate of environmental education, Frankie currently is working with a group of meteorologists on a Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Project in the Northern Pacific Islands.
