Brenda Schoonover

Who is Brenda Schoonover?

Brenda Brown Schoonover was the United States Ambassador to Togo, from January 1998 to July 2000.

Schoonover was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore, and did graduate studies at Howard University, Washington, D.C.. She is fluent in French; and is married to Richard C. Schoonover, a former Foreign Service officer retired from the former United States Information Agency.

She began her overseas service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1961 in the Philippines with the first groups to go abroad. She later served in the Peace Corps' Office of Talent Search, then as Associate Director of the Peace Corps in Tanzania, followed by an appointment as Director of the agency's School Partnership Program. In the 1970s, Schoonover worked for two years as Arlington County of Virginia's Affirmative Action Officer.

Schoonover has been with the Department of State for 21 years in a variety of administrative positions in the Philippines; Sri Lanka; Tunisia; and in the Bureau of Near East and South Asian Affairs. From 1988 to 1991, she was the Chief of Personnel for the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs. From 1992-96 she was Administrative Officer/Deputy Director for the Office of Joint Administrative Services, U.S. Embassy, Brussels, Belgium. She completed the Senior seminar for foreign affairs required by the U.S. State Department.