Tony P. Hall

United States Ambassador
United States Congressman, Ret.

"The Champion’s Campaign: "Ticket" to the End Poverty Zone has a winning game plan that can provide the hungry half of our world with the opportunity for a livelihood for a lifetime in this generation. Join me in the Hall of Champions to the End Poverty Zone."

Three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Ambassador Tony P. Hall is a leading advocate for ending global hunger and improving human rights conditions in the world. In February 2002, President George W. Bush appointed him to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in by Secretary of State Colin Powell in September 2002. He retired from official diplomatic service in April, 2006, and is currently serving as the director of the Alliance to End Hunger which engages diverse institutions in building the public and political will to end hunger at home and abroad. The Alliance has more than 75 members -- corporations, non-profit groups and universities. Prior to his diplomatic service, Ambassador Hall represented the Third District of Ohio in the U.S. Congress for almost twenty-four years, their longest serving representative in history. During his tenure, he was chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger and the Democratic Caucus Task Force on Hunger. He founded the Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors, and authored legislation that supported food aid, child survival, basic education, primary health care, micro enterprise, and development assistance in the world’s poorest countries. Ambassador Hall also founded and chaired the Congressional Hunger Center, a non-governmental organization committed to ending hunger through training and educational programs for emerging leaders. A founding member of the Select Committee on Hunger, Mr. Hall served as its chairman from 1989 to 1993. During this time, he initiated legislation enacted into law to fight hunger-related diseases in developing nations, helped to establish a clearinghouse that provided food through gleaning, and has worked to promote micro-enterprise to reduce joblessness.

Ambassador Hall has worked actively to improve human rights conditions around the world. He also has worked at promoting reconciliation among diverse peoples through a number of private initiatives. In 1964 Mr. Hall graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio where he was a Little All-American football player. During 1966 and 1967, Mr. Hall taught English in Thailand as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He returned to Dayton to work as a realtor and he was a small businessman for several years. Mr. Hall and his wife Janet raised two children.

Mr. Hall served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1969 to 1972, and in the Ohio Senate from 1973 to 1978. On November 7, 1978, Mr. Hall was elected to the 96th Congress. He served on the Foreign Affairs and Small Business Committees before being appointed to the Rules Committee at the beginning of the 97th Congress.

For his hunger legislation and for his proposal for a Humanitarian Summit in the Horn of Africa, Mr. Hall and the Hunger Committee received the 1992 Silver World Food Day Medal from the UNFAO. Mr. Hall is a recipient of the United States Committee for UNICEF 1995 Children's Legislative Advocate Award, U.S. AID Presidential End Hunger Award, 1992 Oxfam America Partners Award, Bread for the World Distinguished Service Against Hunger Award, and NCAA Silver Anniversary Award. He received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Asbury College, Antioch College and Eastern College and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Loyola College in Baltimore. In 1994, President Clinton nominated Mr. Hall for the position of UNICEF Executive Director.

Ambassador Hall is the author of Changing the Face of Hunger and recipient of the Wilberforce Award for his outstanding service to humanity.

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