Bio: Lewis W. Lucke

Lewis W. Lucke, is the Coordinator for Reconstruction within the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

A Senior Foreign Service Officer, Lucke has served for 24 years at the U.S. Agency for International Development ((USAID) in seven overseas posts. He served as USAID Mission Director in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 2000-2001, where he managed the largest U.S. development program in the Western Hemisphere. In 1996 he was USAID Mission Director in Amman, Jordan, a post he held until 2000. Jordan's $200 million per annum economic development program --one of the largest USAID budget's in the world-- focused on improved economic opportunity, economic policy reform, improved water management, and family health. Additionally, Lucke managed and led U.S. support for Jordan's accession to the World Trade Organization which was achieved in 2000.

As USAID Deputy Mission Director in La Paz, Bolivia from 1993-1996, Lucke led and supervised Latin America's second largest U.S. economic development program, which was focused on judicial reform/democracy, child survival/health. From 1990 -1992 he served as Assistant USAID Mission Director in Tunis, Tunisia; Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Europe; and Chief of Project Development and Finance for South America. Early in his career with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Mr. Lucke served in Mali, Senegal, and Costa Rica, where he had responsibility for economic project development and project management.

Mr. Lucke received USAID's highest award, the Administrator's Distinguished Career Award, in 2001, the Presidential Merit Service Award in 2000, as well as five USAID Superior Honor or Meritorious Honor Awards.

He is fluent in French and Spanish, and has a working knowledge of Arabic.

He is the author of "Waiting for Rain: Life & Development in Mali, West Africa," published in 1998 by the Christopher Publishing House.

Mr. Lucke is from Austin, Texas. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a degree in International Studies, and the American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, Arizona, with a Masters of Business Administration.

Source: Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance