Ambassador Mary Ann Peters has been named CEO of the Carter Center, succeeding longtime chief executive Dr. John Hardman, who has held the position since 1992.

Peters, who spent more than three decades as a career diplomat with the U.S. State Department, will provide vision and leadership for nonprofit organization founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, and oversee all program implementation and operations.

She assumes the post on Sept. 2.

“Ambassador Peters’ commitment to world peace and human rights and her diplomatic expertise bring principled and experienced leadership to the Center’s critical mission to secure basic human rights worldwide,” President Carter said in a statement.

The center works to improve the lives of millions in 80 nations through conflict resolution, human rights, economic opportunity, preventing diseases, improving mental health care and teaching farms to increase crop production

Peters has been provost of the U.S. Naval War College since September 2008. Previously, she was dean of academics of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch – Partenkirchen, Germany.

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