Mary Carlin Yates

Mary Carlin Yates (born 1946, Portland, Oregon) was a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. State Department and was one of two deputy commanders of the United States Africa Command until June 2009.

Her two final assignments were as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) of the White House from January 2011- August 2011 and as the Senior Advisor for Strategic Planning and Special Assistant to the President from June 2009 – December 2010.

Despite her retirement, she served as Chargé d'Affaires in Khartoum, Sudan through February 2012.

[1] Yates earned her BA in English from Oregon State University and earned a Master's in Comparative East West Humanities from New York University, where she pursued her doctoral studies in Asian Affairs.

Her husband, John M. Yates, is U.S. Special Envoy to Somalia.