Stephanie Williams has extensive experience in international mediation, diplomacy, and security policy. With the United Nations, she served as the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Libya (2021-2022), Acting Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) (2020-2021), and as Deputy Special Representative (Political) of UNSMIL (2018-2020). Williams led the United Nations’ mediation that resulted in a nationwide Libyan ceasefire agreement signed on October 23, 2020, and a political agreement reached on February 5, 2021, which produced Libya’s first unity government in seven years.
Williams retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2018 with the rank of Minister-Counsellor after serving as Chargé d’Affaires a.i. for the U.S. Embassy to Libya, based in Tunisia. She also served as Senior Adviser on Syria (2017-2018), Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission in Iraq (2016-2017), Jordan (2013-2015), and Bahrain (2010-2013), in addition to tours in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Pakistan. In Washington, she held various policy positions, including Director of Maghreb Affairs.
Williams graduated with honours from the University of Maryland in 1987 with a double degree in Economics and Government Relations. In 1989, she earned a Master’s Degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. She is a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, where she earned a Master’s Degree in National Security Studies in 2008.
Williams is fluent in Arabic, has authored numerous articles on Libya, Lebanon, and non-state armed actors, and has been a featured speaker at various international forums. She is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy and a member of both the American Academy of Diplomacy and the international NGO “Diplomats Without Borders.” In 2021, Williams received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her work in Libya.
Williams is the author of Libya Since Qaddafi: Chaos and the Search for Peace, published by Hurst (London) in April 2025.