Mora Namdar was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to perform the duties of the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs on December 22, 2020. Ms. Namdar most recently served as the Vice President of Legal, Compliance and Risk at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). She previously served as Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State working on a variety of global issues including but not limited to Iran policy. She worked closely with the White House National Security Council and other interagency counterparts to create and implement effective policy supporting US national security and international human rights interests.
Prior to her rejoining government service, Ms. Namdar worked for a fortune 500 company, the Voice of America, founded her own law firm, and created and ran several successful businesses. Ms. Namdar is an attorney licensed in both Texas and Washington D.C. She has spent a great deal of her academic and professional time focused on human rights and US national security matters.
Ms. Namdar is a native Texan who is the child of Iranian immigrants and speaks fluent Farsi. Ms. Namdar earned her JD from American University Washington College of Law and her Masters degree in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service. She is the founding Editor-in Chief of the American University -Washington College of Law’s National Security Law Brief.
She completed her undergraduate degrees in Political Science and International Affairs from SMU in Dallas with minors in Philosophy, Fine Art and Human Rights. She studied abroad at Oxford University and is an avid painter.