PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION:
CEO – FEEEDS & FE3DS, LLC
Dr. Robin Renee Sanders, a former senior career U.S. diplomat, is currently CEO of the FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative & FE3DS, LLC, an advisory firm, which both focus on Africa policy, business, investment, and trade strategies, particularly in the energy, aviation, ICT, and housing sectors.
As a career diplomat, she served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republics of Nigeria & the Congo, and as Africa Director at the White House National Security Council (NSC), along with postings to Senegal, Namibia, and Sudan. She led work on policy issues ranging from political and economic good governance, elections, democracy, and education & health development to business, investment, and trade on behalf of the U.S. Government (USG).
Dr. Sanders has extensive work and expertise in the security area. In Nigeria, she and her team worked on key security issues related to the surge of Boko Horam along with handling challenges in the country’s conflict-prone Niger Delta Region, including the kidnapping of Americans. During her stint as NSC Africa Director and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the State Department, Dr. Sanders worked on many challenging security issues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Sudan.
Her postings as Ambassador to Nigeria and the Republic of the Congo also provided her with the opportunity to serve as the U.S. Representative to ECOWAS and CDEAO, the West and Central African governing bodies for political, economic, security, monetary, and regional trade issues. As Ambassador to the Congo, Dr. Sanders led the USG team assisting the Congo in its resolution of the country’s international debt crisis and created, with UNDP, one of the country’s first post-civil war internet centers for small businesses and entrepreneurs, leading to her receiving the Medal of Honor from the country’s President, and recognition by the UNDP.
Dr. Sanders has received six State Department Superior & Meritorious Awards and the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Civilian Honor Award, which is the U.S. military’s highest civilian award. She also is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the College of National Security Leaders, and the National College of Collegiate Scholars for her doctoral and research work.
As CEO of FEEEDS & FE3DS, LLC, Dr. Sanders has received numerous awards for her advocacy work on global issues, for advancing the US-Africa business trade relationship, and for her scholarly research. As a scholar in data and information systems, Dr. Sanders is also a Senior Scientist consultant for Gallup Poll. She has worked extensively with U.S. and African small businesses on U.S.-Africa trade and on their public and marketing communications having been the State Department’s first Africa Public Diplomacy Director.
Dr. Sanders is currently a member of the USG’s Africa-Trade Advisory Board for USTR; a senior advisor to the global issues-focused international non-profit Concordia; and served previously as Chair of U.S. EXIM Bank’s Africa Advisory Council. She also is on the advisory board of Robert Morris University’s Innovation Center and the advisory board of three small Nigerian firms in the energy, renewable and ICT sectors.
Dr. Sanders received her doctorate degree in Information Systems and Communications from Pittsburgh’s Robert Morris University (RMU). She also holds an MA in International Relations/African Studies, and a MS in Communication, both from Ohio University, and a BA in Communications and Mass Media from Hampton University. She has taught at the university level on several occasions, including: two years at the National Defense University’s (NDU) Eisenhower College, six months as the “Rooney Visiting Scholar” at RMU, and time as a Visiting Scholar with the Center for Independent Colleges and Universities (CIC) Wilson Fellows Scholar Program. She is also the author of two books: The Rise of Africa’s Small & Medium Size Enterprises has numerous acclaims and Legendary Uli Women of Nigeria is a textbook at a Nigerian University.