Africa Center for Strategic Studies

 Director

Ambassador William M. Bellamy (ret.) officially became director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies on 1 October 2008. At the time of his appointment, he was resident senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. Previously he had served as Senior Vice President of National Defense University.

A career diplomat, Ambassador Bellamy was U.S. ambassador to Kenya from 2003 to 2006. During his tenure in Kenya he directed U.S. security programs in the Horn of Africa. He also supervised the U.S. government’s largest foreign HIV/AIDS program and led multinational efforts to combat corruption and promote good governance in Kenya. He served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (2001-2003) and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (2000-2001).

His earlier diplomatic assignments include Deputy Chief of Mission in Canberra (1997-2000), Political Minister-Counselor in Paris (1993-1997) and Political Counselor in Pretoria and Cape Town (1991-1993). In South Africa he was closely engaged in U.S. diplomatic efforts to promote a peaceful transition from apartheid to democratic rule.

Ambassador Bellamy holds a BA in history from Occidental College and an MA in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University). He holds certificates from the Institute Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris.

Ambassador Bellamy is the recipient of a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and a Distinguished Honor Award and two Superior Honor Awards conferred by the Secretary of State. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he worked as a journalist in San Francisco and public relations officer for a major bank in Los Angeles.

 Deputy Director

Mr. Mike Garrison, Colonel U.S. Army (ret.), assumed duties as the Deputy Director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in May 2009. He brings more than 28 years of management, policy development, peacekeeping and operations experience including over a decade of uninterrupted African political and military affairs experience to his new position as a senior member of the Africa Center’s leadership team. He is the Director’s chief operating officer and principle advisor for strategic planning and policy analysis and responsible for the development of Africa Center programs to support the United States policy communities’ African affairs goals.

Mr. Garrison retired from the U.S. Army in May after 28 years of active duty and assumed this senior executive level position at the Africa Center. Immediately prior to his retirement, he served as the Director for the Southern Africa Region in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for African Affairs. There he managed all aspects of bilateral and multilateral defense strategy, policies, programs, and relations between the Department of Defense and nine southern African countries.

His association with Africa started in 1996 with his assignment to the Multinational Force and Observers, in Sinai Egypt, where he commanded the Aviation Unit which provided aviation support to the 11-nation peacekeeping force. In 1999, Mr. Garrison was assigned to U.S. European Command as a Political/Military affairs officer responsible for all U.S. military security cooperation and contingency plans for the 11 southern most African nations. He was subsequently assigned as the Defense and Army Attaché to the Republic of Kenya from July 2002 through June 2005, and then assigned as the Defense and Army Attaché to the Republic of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, from June 2005 through June 2008. During his tour in South Africa, he was deployed to Sudan as the Defense Liaison Officer for several months to support the Embassy during the Abuja peace negotiation. In these positions, he was responsible for the management of all uniformed political-military relations with each host nation governments.

During his Army career, Mr. Garrison held several Army and Joint command and staff positions serving in Germany, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. He was awarded numerous Department of Defense, U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force awards and decorations and earned the U.S. Army Master Aviator badge and has over 2,800 rotary- and fixed-wing flight hours.

Colonel Garrison holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona; a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; and a Master of Science degree in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, was an Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army Rotary Wing Aviator Qualification Course, and a Distinguished Graduate from the U.S. Army Armor Officers Basic Course.

Academic Dean

Dr. Monde Muyangwa currently serves as Academic Dean at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. In this capacity, she oversees all curriculum and program development for the Africa Center, including in the areas of Security Studies, Counter-Terrorism, Civil-Military Relations, Defense Economics, and Conflict Management.

Dr. Muyangwa possesses an extensive background in African development and U.S.-Africa relations. She currently participates on a number of Africa-related programs, including serving on the Advisory Council of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a project of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Before joining the Africa Center, she worked as Director of Research and then Vice President for Research and Policy at the National Summit on Africa from 1997-2000. There, she was responsible for overseeing the research, writing, and production of the Summit’s publications pertaining to U.S.-Africa relations.

Prior to joining the Summit, she worked as Director of International Education Programs at New Mexico Highlands University, and as Tutor in African History, Politics and Economics at St. Clare’s College, Oxford. She has served as a development and gender consultant, and has worked on a wide range of community development projects in southern Africa in the areas of education, housing, health, and nutrition. She has co-authored, with Margaret Vogt, a publication for the International Peace Academy titled An Assessment of the Organization of African Unity’s Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution.

She holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford, as well as a BA in Public Administration and Economics from the University of Zambia. She was a Rhodes Scholar, a Wingate Scholar, and the University of Zambia Class of 1986 Valedictory Speaker.

Associate Dean

Dr. John F. Kelly arrived at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies as an Associate Dean in February 2010, bringing 35 years of experience in higher education, civil government and military science. He came to Washington, DC as an Associate Professor from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, where he was a Fulbright Scholar conducting research on comparative federalism. Dr. Kelly’s academic research has focused on retained sovereignty and policy development of subnational government, and he has received multiple teaching awards. He also served as an elected member of the Board of Governors of Wayne State University from 1998 to 2002.

Professor Kelly holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (international relations and diplomatic history) and was a Graduate Fellow of Wayne State University. He also has a Juris Doctor degree from Michigan State University and is a diplomate in military law from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General School. He completed graduate studies at Georgetown University and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Wayne State University. His baccalaureate degree is in political science and education from the University of Michigan with Honors. Dr. Kelly served as a Special Attorney General in Michigan from 1995 to 1999. He is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Michigan Supreme Court and all subordinate Federal and State bars as well as the US Court of Military Appeals.

Senator Kelly was elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1978 from Detroit at age 28 and served four consecutive four-year terms. In 1994 he stood for election to the U.S. Senate requiring retirement from the state legislature. In the Michigan Senate he served with distinction and leadership on committees with jurisdiction over the judiciary, banking and economic development, health policy, local government and public finance. John was elected at his first caucus to the leadership post of Majority Whip and authored over 100 pieces of legislation and amendments that became law, including the state investment anti-apartheid laws for South Africa and the McBride antidiscrimination employment laws for Northern Ireland. He served on the National Commission on Uniform Law, the Michigan Law Revision Commission and as a delegate to the National Conference on State Legislatures. Senator Kelly served on a National Commission on Distressed States and is committed to projects to revitalize the City of Detroit. He served until 2009 as the elected Vice-Chair of the Michigan Film Advisory Board and is currently the Director of the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival going into its third year.

John retired in 2009 as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Civil Affairs branch. As a Foreign Area Officer, he has served as a Defense Attache on multiple tours of Active Duty assigned primarily to the Republic of South Africa. In his reserve capacity he spent seven years as a liaison to Federal law enforcement on counter-terrorism research. A Graduate of Army Command and General Staff College he also spent 10 years as a staff Judge Advocate General. He has been decorated repeatedly for his contributions to the defense establishment during times of war.

Areas of Expertise

Contact

John F. Kelly

Professor of Practice
Director – Communications and Community Affairs

Brad Minnick comes to the Africa Center from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he was project director for the Center’s Public Diplomacy initiative. He is an internationally recognized management and communications advisor and principal at HKS Global, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm.

Brad is a former Director of the Office of International Visitors at the U.S. Department of State and served five years as Chief Executive Officer of the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), a non-partisan international exchange organization with programs around the world.

As a former managing director for Weber Shandwick Worldwide, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, he has trained government officials, NGO leaders, political activists and businesspersons around the globe in management and communications strategy and tactics. A former advisor to the United Nations Development Programme and the Parliament and Government of Romania, he has lectured extensively on political communication and democratic development, led seminars on communications and policy issues at Harvard University and participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Earlier in his career Brad served as a congressional press secretary, national political party communications advisor and local television political commentator. He was Deputy Chief Secretary to the Governor of Massachusetts and Vice President of the Massachusetts International Trade Council. He has traveled extensively throughout the world.

Brad holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a BA in Political Science from American University in Washington, D.C.

Senior French Representative

Colonel Patrick de Vathaire became the Senior French Representative at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in August 2011. Following his graduation from the “Officer Candidate School”, promotion of 1983, Colonel de Vathaire joined the « Troupes de Marine ». He subsequently gained an impressive depth of operational knowledge of Africa during his numerous visits to the Continent. In addition to participating in operations in Chad, the Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Gabon and Togo, he has also spent time at the heart of various African armed forces as both an instructor and military advisor. He commanded the 43rd Infantry Battalion from 2005 until 2006, based in the Ivory Coast. In between his African commitments, Colonel de Vathaire also served in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was the Operations Officer for the French Army Special Forces Regiment. Following 18 months at the Army War College and the Joint Advanced Staff College, he was firstly posted to the Joint Staff as Chief J3 Land from 2003 – 2005 then again as Chief J5 Africa in the Joint Operational Planning Centre (Centre de Planification et Conduite des Opérations) from 2008 to 2011. It is in this last role where his African expertise has come to the fore: he has been responsible for the strategic oversight and anticipation of potential crisis within Sub-Saharan Africa. He has had oversight of the French participation in the European EUFOR mission, the deployment of the UN mission to Chad, the crisis in the Ivory Coast, piracy off the Somalia coast and he has been actively involved in the study to reshape French participation in Africa.

He holds the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, is an officer of the National Order of Merit, holds “la croix de la valeur militaire” with 2 stars and is an Officer of the Rwandan National Order of Peace.

Diplomatic Advisor

David Brown is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and joined the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) as Diplomatic Advisor in August 2011. His prior Africa experience includes serving as the Senior Advisor to the J-5 (Strategy, Plans, and Programs) Director of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in Stuttgart (Germany); three times as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassies in Cotonou (Benin), Nouakchott (Mauritania), and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso); and as Economic Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Mr. Brown’s non-Africa overseas tours have been as Consul General in Chengdu (China), and Economic Officer in Beijing, Tokyo, and Moscow. He has also served in Washington as the Director of the Office of Environmental Policy; as Economic Officer in the Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs (EEB) responsible for trade policy with developing countries, including Africa; and on the Canada Desk with responsibilities for economic, consular, and law enforcement issues.

Mr. Brown has won several State Department individual and group Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, and received the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) Sinclaire Language Award for Chinese and Japanese.  His other foreign languages are French, Spanish, and Russian.

Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Brown worked in Miami as Business Manager of the Latin American Bureau of CBS News.

Mr. Brown has a Bachelor of Arts in Government (Political Science) from Cornell University, where he graduated with honors. He also has two Masters of Business Administration (MBAs) from the University of Chicago (specialization in finance) and the University of Louvain, Belgium (majors in econometrics and international business).

He is married and has two sons.  He enjoys swimming, jogging, and tennis.

Chief of Staff

Danielle Buchanan came to the Africa Center in August 2001 after working as a government civilian employee at the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. For 22 years, Buchanan worked for senior level flag officers. She was the executive assistant to the past seven Deputy Commanders in Chief of the United States European Command. In that capacity, she traveled extensively throughout 40 African countries. Possessing a thorough understanding of U.S., European and African political and military affairs, she collaborated with U.S. and foreign high-level government officials and foreign Heads of State. Born in Etain, France, she speaks French fluently and also speaks German.