James Joseph

Ambassador James A. Joseph is a professor of Duke University’s Practice of Public Policy Studies program and serves as executive director of the university’s U.S. Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values. A former U.S. ambassador to South Africa appointed by President Clinton, Joseph is a Yale University graduate and Louisiana native. He serves as board chairman for the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. He has served in senior executive or advisory positions for four U.S. Presidents, including Deputy Secretary of the Interior for President Jimmy Carter and U.S. Ambassador to South Africa for President William Clinton. A graduate of Yale Divinity School and a former visiting fellow at Nuffield College at Oxford University, he has nineteen honorary degrees. Joseph served for almost fourteen years as president and CEO of the Council of Foundations whose 2,000 members came from five continents. A former vice president of Cummins Engine Company and CEO of the Cummins Foundation, he has also served on many foundation boards, including the National Endowment for Democracy and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the world renowned living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was chair of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation established by Governor Blanco in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and he serves currently as a member of the board of directors of the H.B. Heron Foundation in New York, the Conservation Fund and the Water Institute of the Gulf. He was also the founding chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service, where he helped establish AmeriCorps.