123rd commencement exercises will be Saturday, May 12
CONWAY, Ark. – U.S. Ambassador Alan Eastham will be the commencement speaker at Hendrix College’s 123rd commencement exercises. The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 12, on the lawn between Fausett Hall and Ellis Hall on the south side of Hendrix’s campus, adjacent to Spruce Street.
A 1973 graduate of Hendrix College and a native of Dumas, Ark., Eastham presently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Malawi, a position he has held since 2005. Eastham joined the U. S. Foreign Service in 1975 and is a career diplomat. His most recent assignment was as Director of the Office of Central African Affairs (August 2002-May 2005), overseeing relations between the U.S. and 10 countries in the center of the African continent.
Eastham began his career as a Vice Consul in the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal (1975-1978), followed by Washington assignments in public affairs (1978-80), the counterterrorism office 1980-82), as Sri Lanka/Maldives desk officer (1982-83) and India desk officer (1983-84). In 1984, he was assigned as Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, a post he held for three years. In 1987, he returned to Washington as Special Assistant for Near East and South Asia in the office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. His involvement in U.S. relations with Africa began in 1989, when he was assigned as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, followed in 1992 by a two-year tour as Political Counselor in Kinshasa (then Zaire).
From Zaire, Eastham was assigned in 1994 as U.S. Consul General in Bordeaux, France, and in 1995 became Political Counselor in New Delhi. In 1997, he moved to Islamabad, Pakistan as Deputy Chief of Mission and in 1999 again returned to Washington as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs. After serving as Acting Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs from January to May, 2001, he was named Special Negotiator for Conflict Diamonds in the Economics and Business Bureau, a position he held from September, 2001 to August, 2002.
Eastham was born and raised in Dumas, Arkansas. He holds a B.A. degree in philosophy from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia. He and his wife Carolyn have two sons, Mark and Michael.
Hendrix College, founded in 1876, is an undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is among 150 colleges featured in the 2007 edition of the Princeton Review America’s Best Value Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.