Ambassador (ret.) Yael Lempert joined MEI as the Vice President for Outreach in September 2025. Previously, Ambassador Lempert served for over 27 years as an American diplomat, including as the US Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 2023 to 2025. Her other previous positions include Acting Assistant Secretary of State and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs from 2021 through 2023. She served in 2021 as the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in London, and as the Deputy Chief of Mission for the two years prior. She was Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Egypt and North Africa from 2017 to 2018.
Ambassador Lempert served on the National Security Council staff of three presidents, including as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Levant, Israel, and Egypt from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that she was the Deputy Principal Officer at the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, and worked from 2009 to 2011 at the US Embassy in Libya, where she spent more than half of her tour as the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, including during the February 2011 evacuation of the American citizen community and embassy personnel. From 2006 to 2009 she served at the US Embassy in Egypt. Other previous assignments include Director for Iraq at the National Security Council; Governance Officer at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad; Special Assistant for South Asian and Near Eastern Affairs to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; Iraq desk officer; and tours in the Department of State’s Bureau of Nonproliferation and the US Consulate General in Shanghai.
Ambassador Lempert holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She has been presented with numerous awards for her public service, including twice receiving the US government-wide Presidential Rank Award, and the National Security Council’s Outstanding Service Award.