Jamaica Swears in New Mission Director

Denise A. Herbol was sworn in on Friday, November 4, 2011 as the Mission Director for USAID’s mission in Kingston, Jamaica.  Herbol, a career Senior Foreign Service Officer, leaves her post as Senior Deputy Mission Director for USAID’s mission in Islamabad, Pakistan where she helped manage a FY 2011 budget of approximately $1.1 billion and a staff of over 240 since September 2010.   

Herbol, who joined USAID in 1987, has worked in some of the agency’s most challenging missions including Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Ghana, Belize, Albania, Uganda, and Ukraine. 

This new post is not Herbol’s first in the LAC region.  In addition to serving in Belize from 1992 to 1994, she was Supervisory Executive Officer to USAID’s Mission in Colombia from 2004 to 2007.

In Jamaica, Herbol will oversee programs that impact economic growth, education, democracy, and anti-corruption; including USAID’s component of the U.S. Government’s Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, which helps Jamaica and other Caribbean countries empower at risk youth, stimulate economic development, improve education and skills development; and fight corruption. 

At her swearing in, Herbol declared her commitment to sustainable development that addresses both host country and USG interests. “We must use each available dollar in the most effective way possible to achieve shared goals and strengthen the ability of Jamaicans to achieve their own development,” she said. “The measure of our success will be how well we will have invested our human and financial resources to achieve our shared goals.”

Herbol went on to emphasize that the size of the budget does not determine the impact of our aid. “It is not about the amount of resources available. It is about the willingness of the counterpart country to work with us to maximize the potential good that we can do with available resources. I know that Jamaica has strong effective institutions with good leadership and I expect we will be able to more quickly move to expand the amount of resources through host country systems as well as local NGOS.”

Herbol earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in Psychology with Sociology minor.  She attended the Federal Executive Institute Executive Leadership Program in 2002.  In January 2007, Ms. Herbol was the first USAID employee to participate in the National Security Decision Making Workshop held at the U.S. Air War College in Alabama.  She has received numerous awards from USAID and the Department of State for exceptional service.  Ms. Herbol was born in Pennsylvania and has three children.