The Asia Foundation

Teresita C. Schaffer is director of the South Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to that, Ambassador Schaffer worked in the U.S. Foreign Service for over 30 years, and was one of the State Department’s principal experts on South Asia. She was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia from 1989 to 1992, the senior-most South Asia position in the department at the time, and U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka from 1992 to 1995. Ambassador Schaffer also served as Director of the Foreign Service Institute from 1995 to 1997.  Other diplomatic posts have included Tel Aviv, Islamabad, New Delhi, and Dhaka, as well as a tour as Director of the Office of International Trade in the State Department. Author of numerous publications on South Asia, including Kashmir: The Economics of Peace Building (2004), Pakistan’s Future and U.S. Policy Options (2004), and several publications on U.S. trade policy options in South Asia and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India, Ambassador Schaffer has taught at Georgetown University and American University. She speaks French, Swedish, German, Italian, Hebrew, Hindi, and Urdu, and has studied Bangla and Sinhala.