In 1995, career Foreign Service Officer Mosina H. Jordan was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR). After U.S. Senate confirmation she arrived in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic and presented her credentials on November 29, 1995.
Mosina Jordan was born in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1943, to Frank Montero and Alice Mann. In 1964, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from New York University. After she earned her Juris Doctorate from American University in 1973, Jordan became a civil servant, working for the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and for the Community Services Administration.
In 1982, Jordan started her career with the U.S. Foreign Service as an Administrative Officer for Economic Programs for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, D.C. After working at USAID headquarters for seven years, she rose in rank to become a Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator. Her first overseas experience came in 1989 when she served as a USAID Representative to Belize. From 1991 to 1995, Jordan supervised various USAID missions as Director for Regional Development in the Eastern Caribbean from an office in Bridgetown, Barbados. In this position, she directed a $24 million development program that promoted economic diversification, free trade, and legal reform for regional sustainability for seven Caribbean island nations.
In 1995, Jordan was appointed Ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR). Her mission was to promote economic diversification, free market economic development, democracy, and human rights in a nation transitioning to democracy after decades of dictatorships. On May 21, 1996, this mission abruptly changed when CAR army soldiers staged a mutiny at the capital, Bangui, over unpaid wages. Jordan responded by closing the U.S. Embassy, and having her staff and other Americans safely evacuated to nearby Cameroon with the assistance of 35 U.S. Marines. The Embassy
