Pamela E. Bridgewater (born April 14, 1947) is an American career diplomat who served as the U.S.

[1][2] Bridgewater was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the daughter of a bank teller and a jazz trumpeter,[3] and attended Walker-Grant High School.

[5][6] At the Department of State, Bridgewater was the longest-serving diplomat in South Africa,[1] posted as Political Officer at Pretoria from 1990 to 1993, and as the first African-American woman appointed Consul General at Durban, from 1993 to 1996.

[7] Subsequently, she was appointed U.S. deputy assistant secretary for African Affairs in December 2002, where she managed the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs' relationships with 16 countries in West Africa.

[7] Bridgewaster is married to the Rev Dr. A. Russell Awkard, pastor of the New Zion Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky.