Jimmy J. Kolker (born 1948) is an American diplomat. He was the ambassador to Burkina Faso from 1999 to 2002 and Uganda from 2002 to 2005.^[1] He was Chief of the HIV/AIDS Section at UNICEF’s New York headquarters from 2007 to 2011. From 2011 to 2017, Ambassador Kolker was Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.

Ambassador Kolker was recalled to the State Department in 2021 as senior advisor to the Coordinator for Global Covid Response and Health Security, working part time. Outside of government, he serves on the boards of MANA Nutrition, the G4 Global Surgery Alliance, Building Tomorrow and Firelight Foundation. He is an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Science and Security and a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is an advisor to Last Mile Health, and to Texas Children's Hospital's Global HOPE pediatric cancer initiative and to the Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem.

In June, 2019, Ambassador Kolker was the commencement speaker at Carleton College, "How To Be Prepared for the Jobs That Don't Yet Exist". He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the ceremony.

Early life

Kolker graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in 1966.^[2]

Early life and education

Jimmy Kolker was born in 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated with a B.A., magna cum laude from Carleton College and received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship 1970–71, which he spent in Chad, Uganda and Ghana. Kolker earned a master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University in 1983.

Career

He served for four years on the Senate staff of U.S. Senator James Abourezk.

Kolker joined the U.S. foreign service in 1977, and held diplomatic reporting posts in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. He then moved to management jobs as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Botswana from 1990 to 1994, and in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1996 to 1999.

President Bill Clinton nominated Kolker as United States Ambassador to Burkina Faso on July 1, 1999, and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in November, 1999.^[3] He left the post on August 2, 2002.

President George W. Bush nominated Kolker as United States Ambassador to Uganda and he was confirmed on October 3, 2002. He left this post on September 30, 2005.

From 2005 to 2007, Kolker was Deputy U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, leading implementation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). From 2007 to 2011, Kolker was Chief of the HIV/AIDS Section at UNICEF’s New York headquarters. He led UNICEF's work on HIV and AIDS, focusing on mother-to-child-transmission of HIV, pediatric treatment, prevention among adolescents and young people and protection for children and families affected by AIDS.

In November 2011, Kolker returned to the U.S. Government, taking on the role of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. This office is part of the Office of the HHS Secretary. In 2014, Ambassador Kolker was promoted to Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.^[4] Kolker represented HHS at interagency and World Health Organization meetings. His office had a leading role in global health security. He was also alternate US board member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Personal life

Kolker speaks French, Swedish, and Portuguese as foreign languages. He is married to Britt-Marie Forslund. They have two daughters – Anne and Eva.^[5]

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.