Jessica Long is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and has served as Chargé d’Affaires of Embassy Windhoek since July 2, 2021 and Deputy Chief of Mission in Windhoek the year before that.   Prior to arriving in Windhoek, she served as Counselor for the Political, Economic, and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement portfolios at U.S. Embassy Pristina, Kosovo.  Jess has also served abroad in Israel, Chile, and as the Civilian leader of a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Paktika, Afghanistan.  In the United States, she served on assignments as the Desk Officer for Algeria and Tunisia, the Ecuador Desk Officer, and Deputy Director of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Policy for the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Central Asia.  Jess also won the State Department’s Replogle Award for Management Improvement for her tour as the Foreign Policy Advisor at Naval Special Warfare Command.

She is a graduate of Rice University and holds a Masters of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary.  Jess grew up as the child of U.S. Foreign Service Officers, traveling around the world.  She speaks Spanish, French, Italian, Hebrew, Pashtu, and Albanian.  She is joined in Namibia by her husband, a retired Navy Chief, and two cats and a dog.