Member, Non-Partisan Security Group

Bonnie Jenkins served as Ambassador at the U.S. Department of State from 2009 – 2017 as Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. She is the U.S. representative to the G7 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (WMD) and chaired the Global Partnership in 2012.

She was the Department of State lead on the Nuclear Security Summit, and she coordinated the Department of State’s activities related to the effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material. Jenkins coordinated the Department of State’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs and helped to ensure a coordinated approach when promoting these programs internationally. She engaged in outreach efforts and regularly briefed United States Combatant Commands about WMD programs in their area of responsibility, working closely with relevant international organizations and multilateral initiatives, and with nongovernmental organizations engaged in CTR-related activities.

Jenkins is also engaged in the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), which is an international effort with over 50 countries to reduce infections disease threats such as Ebola and Zika. Launched in February 2014, Jenkins has worked closely with governments to help ensure they recognize that GHSA is a multi-sectoral effort requiring the engagement of all relevant stakeholder to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. Jenkins leads an international effort to engage non-governmental stakeholders in the GHSA and she has also developed a GHSA Next Generation network.

Jenkins has dedicated significant attention to the engagement of Africa in the threat of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons and working closely with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), has developed a program, Threat Reduction in Africa (TRIA), to help ensure that U.S. programs and activities in CBRN security are well coordinated and as accurately as possible meet the needs of countries where those programs are engaged.

Bonnie Jenkins is Founder and President of the Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation organization and a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

She serves as the Leadership Liaison for the Department of State’s Veterans-at-State Affinity Group. She also serves on the Department of State’s Diversity Governance Board.