Program archives

Kenton Keith is senior vice president of the Meridian International Center, a nonprofit organization that promotes international understanding through exchanges of people, ideas, and the arts. Prior to that, Ambassador Keith had a distinguished career as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Information Agency. Much of his career was spent in the Middle East, including his appointment by President Bush in 1992 as U.S. Ambassador to Qatar. Mr. Keith also headed USIA's area office that supervised all of the agency's operations in the Near East and South Asia. He also took on a temporary assignment for the State Department where he established and directed the Coalition Information Center in Islamabad. His postings include Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria, as well as the cultural attaché in Paris.

He graduated from the University of Kansas and was a recipient of the University's Distinguished Service Citation, the University's highest honor. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy before entering the foreign service. He has received two presidential Meritorious Sevice Awards, and the Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government. He serves as President of the Association of Black American Ambassadors.