Youshea Berry serves as the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Policy, Office of the General Counsel, USAID. Youshea is a seasoned attorney with over 15 years of experience in foreign policy and law. At USAID, Youshea provides legal guidance on appropriations law and policy guidance to domestic and overseas staff. Youshea began her career at USAID as a Congressional Liaison Officer and was then served as the Division Chief for Senate Affairs in the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs. In that role, she helped prepare and advise senior officials, including two USAID Administrators, in nearly one hundred hearings and briefings before Congress. Her role drafting and implementing interagency legislative strategies helped institutionalize key Presidential Initiatives like Power Africa, which garnered bipartisan and bicameral congressional support with the passage of the Electrify Africa Act. Youshea also led USAID's congressional outreach for President Obama's U.S.-Africa Leadership Summit and served on the advance team for the presidential/congressional delegation accompanying President Obama's trip to Ethiopia to speak before the African Union.
In between stints on Capitol Hill, Youshea founded and managed a law firm practice advising corporations and nonprofit organizations on business transactions and commercial real estate matters. Youshea has received several awards and served on the boards of local and national bar associations, including on the Leadership Council of the Young Lawyers’ Division of the American Bar Association, which represents 150,000 young lawyers in the U.S. and abroad. She was also a recipient of the prestigious “ABA National Outstanding Young Lawyer Award." She is currently a member of the Board of Emory University Law School, her alma mater.
Youshea is a 2013 alum of the International Career Advancement Program (ICAP). She participated in the Partnership for a Secure America Program and the Truman National Security Scholars Program for congressional staff. She is currently participating in M.I.T. Seminar XXI, a competitive 9 month leadership program for select national security and foreign policy staff. She is a member of Black Professionals in International Affairs, the Thursday Luncheon Group, and the African American Federal Executives Association.
Youshea earned her B.A. in English with a minor in Spanish from Xavier University of Louisiana. She earned a J.D. from Emory University School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in three jurisdictions and the U.S. Supreme Court. Youshea is a mother of two girls, wife of 15 years and a competitive triathlete in Olympic and half-ironman distances.