In March 2021, the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs will highlight women in our bureau advancing U.S. foreign policy and national security efforts in the United States and across Europe. Since 1995, U.S. presidents have issued an annual proclamation designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month," celebrating the contributions women have made to the United States in a variety of fields. This effort is a part of a broader campaign celebrating diversity and inclusion as core American values.
Tina Amereihn
Tina serves as the FAA Director of the Europe, Africa and Middle East regions. She has previously served as the FAA Chief of Staff, Chief Information Officer and held several positions in Aviation Safety. Her favorite places to live are Alaska and Montana. She loves Yellowstone, snowshoeing and any red wine.
Alicia Arendt
Alicia Arendt has served at the U.S. Department of State since 2008 and she is currently assigned to the management section at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania. She has served domestically at the Boston Passport Agency and the Bureau of Budget and Planning in DC. She has served in consular and management sections overseas at the U.S. Embassies in Honduras, Peru, and Barbados. She is Italian-American, fluent in Spanish, hailing from Long Island, NY. Alicia has an Executive Master of Public Management degree from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Temple University.
Victoria Mitchell Avdiu
Victoria Mitchell Avdiu is a Foreign Service Officer and international development professional with broad experience in strategy development, public-private partnerships, budgeting, public outreach and communications, project evaluation, the program cycle, donor and inter-agency coordination, and host government relations. She is the USAID Country Director for Belarus, and has had a fulfilling career with USAID serving in various areas of expertise around the world over the past 12 years. Before joining USAID in 2009, she worked for the International Finance Corporation, the UN Development Program, and the Department of State. She received her bachelor’s degree in international affairs and French language and literature from The George Washington University and a master’s degree in international relations and public Management from The Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris, France. She speaks French and has studied Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Albanian and Spanish.
Mariah M. M. Bastin-Eickhoff
Mariah M. M. Bastin-Eickhoff began her career at the Department of State as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF), Class of 2018. She has served as a NATO Desk Officer in RPM since June 2019. Prior to this she was at UNVIE where her portfolios covered the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. She also worked as a Public Affairs Officer in the Bureau of International Information Programs. Bastin-Eickhoff was born in Newport News, VA and grew up all over the world due to her father’s military service. She earned a Master of International Affairs from The Bush School of Government & Public Service where she focused on National Security and Diplomacy. She also graduated magna cum laude with BAs in International Studies: Politics & Diplomacy with French and German at Texas A&M University. Before joining the State Department, she worked for the Heritage Foundation, the Leadership Institute, GovLoop, the U.S. Mission to the UN on the Military Staff Committee, and the U.S. Air Force Academy in its Diversity Office. Bastin-Eickhoff is fluent in English, French, and German.
Jennifer Bonner
Jennifer Bonner is a Foreign Service Management Officer, currently serving as the Executive Director of both the European and Eurasian Affairs and International Organizations bureaus. Prior assignments include Executive Director of East Asia Pacific Affairs, Minister Counselor for Management in China, and Management Counselor in Bucharest, Kyiv and Jerusalem. Jennifer has a B.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins and an MA from SAIS, and has studied Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian. She is originally from Ipswich, MA.
Ambassador Bridget Brink
A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Brink was sworn in as Ambassador to the Slovak Republic on July 1, 2019. She most recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State (2015-2018), with responsibility for issues related to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the protracted conflicts in Europe. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2014-2015) and in Tbilisi, Georgia (2011-2014).
Michelle Burton
As Management Counselor, Michelle ensures that we have the personnel, facilities, and funding we need to achieve our Mission’s objectives. Originally a farm girl from North Dakota, Michelle has lived in Japan, Kuwait, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Germany. Outside of work she enjoys hiking and running marathons.
Ambassador Kate Byrnes
Inspired by her Foreign Service parents, Kate Marie Byrnes joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1993, transitioned to the Department of State in 2000, and entered the Senior Foreign Service in 2011. Currently the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of North Macedonia, she has served in multiple countries across Europe and as part of the U.S. delegations to NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as in Bolivia and Afghanistan. She was a 2002 Pearson Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and 2012 International Women’s Forum Leadership Fellow.
Sheila Casey
Sheila Casey has been with the Department of State for over 15 years. She is currently the Strategic Resources Chief in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs’ Office of Public Diplomacy (EUR/PPD), and oversees funding and exchange initiatives designed to support the Department’s engagement with audiences across the EUR region, and promote U.S. foreign policy interests. Before coming to EUR/PPD, she was the Deputy Director in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ Office of Citizen Exchanges, where she managed a broad range of cultural, professional, sports and youth programs that promote U.S. interests around the world. Prior to joining the Department, she worked for an American non-profit organization in Russia and Ukraine conducting U.S. exchange programs, which included serving as Director of the Fulbright Office in Moscow. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and Master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University.
Victoria Choe
Victoria Choe joined the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in 2014. A Management coned officer, she is currently working in Ankara, Turkey as one of the Assistant General Services Officers. Her previous tours have included Ukraine and Mexico. She is a 2012 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellow. She speaks Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Maureen Cormack
Maureen Cormack is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2015 to 2019. Prior to arriving in Sarajevo, Ambassador Cormack served in Washington, DC as the Chief of Staff to the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL; as Principal Deputy Coordinator for the Bureau of International Information Programs; and as Executive Assistant in the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Overseas, she has also served in Korea, Poland, and France. Ambassador Cormack has a B.A. in performing arts management from the University of Illinois, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago and a Diplome Semestriel from the University of Paris IV. She speaks French and has studied Bosnian, Polish, Korean, and Spanish.
Eavan Cully
Eavan Cully is the first Public Diplomacy Officer, and first female Foreign Service Officer, to serve at the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, which reopened in June 2020. She has previously served in Washington, DC; Beijing, China; and Vancouver, Canada. Prior to joining the Department of State in 2015, she was a content developer in the cutthroat world of educational publishing in Boston, Massachusetts. She spent too many years translating texts on early 20th Century Chinese Feminism for her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish and is studying Danish and Greenlandic when she can.
Amy Davison
Foreign Service Specialist Amy Davison has been a Special Agent with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security since 2007. Currently serving as the regional security officer in Zagreb, Croatia, her overseas assignments include Algiers, Algeria, Kabul, Afghanistan, and Munich, Germany. Domestically, Amy began her career at the Washington Field Office as a member of the Deputy Secretary of State’s protection detail, and from 2018-2020, served as the policy and training chief for the overseas criminal investigations (OCI) program.
Ambassador Kelly Degnan
Kelly Degnan is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. She arrived in Tbilisi on Jan. 29, 2020, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Georgia. During her almost 30 -year career, Ambassador Degnan has focused on political and political-military affairs. She was the Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Rome and Pristina, and also served overseas at the U.S. Embassies in Botswana, Pakistan, and Turkey. Ambassador Degnan was the Senior Civilian Representative to Brigade Combat Team Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, where she earned the Secretary of State’s Expeditionary Service Award, one of many awards she has received throughout her career. Ambassador Degnan was also the Political Advisor to the four-star Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa, and the Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In Washington, DC, Ambassador Degnan served as the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State under Secretary John Kerry, as a Special Assistant to Secretary Albright, and as a Special Assistant to three Under Secretaries for Political Affairs, Marc Grossman, William Burns, and Nicholas Burns. Ambassador Degnan is from California. She earned a degree in journalism from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism and a law degree from the University of Southern California Law Center. Before joining the Foreign Service, she worked as both a journalist and a lawyer. As an attorney, she served as Legal Counsel in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau while navigating the Pacific on her sailboat. She speaks Italian and French, has studied Turkish and Urdu, and is learning basic Georgian.
Ambassador-designate Julie Fisher
Julie Fisher is the Ambassador-designate of the United States to Belarus. In more than 25 years as an American diplomat she has worked as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to NATO in Belgium; served at American embassies in Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia; and worked in Washington at the National Security Council and various offices in the State Department. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Russian language and East European Studies, and earned her master’s degree in public policy at the School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She speaks Russian and French.
Jessica Franceschini
Jessica Franceschini has worked with the Department of State since 2019. She is currently supporting the ESO section as the Logistician for U.S. Embassy Helsinki. Prior to State, Jessica served in the military for 8 years. She received the opportunity to work for the Department of Defense as a Contract Specialist. She is currently working towards her Master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration of government contracting.
Dr. Kathy Gallardo
Dr. Kathy Gallardo is a Regional Medical Officer/Psychiatrist and member of the Senior Foreign Service, (Minister Counselor). She is currently posted in Frankfurt, and previous assignments include Afghanistan, Pretoria, Amman, and Washington, DC. She has served as the Deputy Director for Mental Health Services and Deputy Medical Director and Director for Mental Health Programs in the Bureau of Medical Services (MED), a Deputy Assistant Secretary-equivalent position. She has extensive experience in direct critical incident support, including natural disasters, personnel recovery, post-attack assistance and evacuations and has spent extensive time providing mental health services in many high stress posts, including Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Nairobi, Tunisia, and Yemen. She is board certified in General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has a doctoral degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology and is a subject matter expert in brain developmental and complex neuropsychiatry.
Ambassador Judith Garber
Prior to her appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus, Judith Garber served as the Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. In that capacity she led U.S. diplomacy on oceans, climate, space, health, wildlife trafficking, and fisheries, among other issues. A career Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Career Minister, she joined the Foreign Service in 1984. Her previous diplomatic assignments have included Ambassador to Latvia from 2009-2012, Deputy Assistant Secretary for North and Central Europe, Director for Overseas Development Finance as well as postings in Spain, the Czech Republic, Israel and Mexico. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, the Ambassador worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. She has a degree from Georgetown University.
Carrie Giardino
Carrie Giardino is a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. After graduating from Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Carrie spent a year working in commercial real estate development in Boston, Massachusetts before joining the Peace Corps. While in Kenya, she was accepted into graduate school and received her MS in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University completing her final semester at the London campus where she stayed on to work as a stringer with National Public Radio (NPR). She continued working as a freelance foreign journalist in Côte d’Ivoire and Lebanon. From Beirut, Carrie was hired by the State Department to work as a Foreign Service Officer and completed tours in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen. She left the State Department to work as a Department of Defense contractor returning to Iraq as an Interagency Educator training the U.S. military at the Counterinsurgency Academy. She also went to Afghanistan in 2012 as a research director with the U.S. Army’s Human Terrain Systems team. Carrie then returned to the State Department and completed tours in Qatar as an Economic Officer, Jordan as a Consular Officer, and Sarajevo as the Political - Military Affairs Officer. She currently works in Istanbul with the State Department’s Syria Transition Assistance Response Team (START) and is the Deputy Director of the field team and manages the education stabilization programs in Syria.
Shawn Gray
Shawn Gray’s career with the U.S. State Department has enabled her to learn from people and places all around the world, and to proudly represent the United States abroad. She has served at posts across Europe and Africa, from Moscow to Harare, and in Washington as a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, a Pearson Fellow on Capitol Hill, and a master’s student at the National Defense University. She is currently the Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at U.S. Embassy Brussels. Shawn has found that a gratifying Foreign Service career depends on cultivating relationships with colleagues and mentors, with new friends in foreign countries, and above all with family, who also experience the joys and challenges of diplomatic life.
Latifat Hassan
Latifat joined the U.S. Department of State in 2009. She is a board certified, family nurse practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in family practice. Currently, Latifat serves as the Medical Provider at the U.S. Embassy Health Unit in Berlin. She has also served in Angola, Washington, DC, Mauritania, and Nigeria. As a medical provider, Latifat’s passion allows her to focus on teaching patients to maintain a balance for optimal health through a preventative and holistic approach to health care.
Jessie Huaracayo
Jessie Huaracayo joined the State Department in 2003 and has served in Copenhagen, Tijuana, Lima, Havana, and now Madrid, where she is the Deputy Political Counselor. She has also served in Washington in the bureaus of African Affairs, Intelligence and Research, and Conflict and Stabilization Operations. The daughter of a nurse and a house painter, Jessie was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She knew she wanted to do “something international" when she grew up after receiving a scholarship from the Rotary Club to spend a year living with a family in a small town in Chile when she was 16. It was a transformative experience. She later studied Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, spending one semester interning at the US Mission to the United Nations and another semester studying in Lima. She still believes in the power of people-to-people exchanges and personal relationships, together with sound policies, to change the world for the better.
Ambassador Yuri Kim
Yuri Kim arrived in Tirana as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Albania in January 2020. A career diplomat, Ambassador Kim has worked on key foreign policy and national security challenges across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. She was director of Southern European Affairs, responsible for Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and the broader Eastern Mediterranean region, as well as director of the Office of European Security and Political-Military Affairs, responsible for NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She was also previously Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State and director of the Center for the Study of the Conduct of Diplomacy. Earlier in her career, she was Special Assistant to Secretary Colin Powell as well as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Overseas assignments include Turkey, Iraq, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and China. Yuri Kim holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Phil. from Cambridge University.
Elizabeth Lee
Consul General Elizabeth K. Lee arrived in Thessaloniki, Greece in August 2020. Ms. Lee is a career member of the Foreign Service with fourteen years’ experience as a foreign policy leader, manager, and negotiator on a diverse range of regions and issues, including the Middle East, East Asia, and the United Nations Security Council. Previous assignments include the U.S. Embassies in Seoul and Baghdad, the former U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York City, and the Israel and Palestinian Affairs Desk at the State Department in Washington DC. Ms. Lee holds an M.A. degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University, a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota, and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Grinnell College. She is proficient in Greek, Korean, and Hebrew, and has studied Arabic and Spanish. She is from California and is accompanied by her Golden Retriever, Pumpkin, aka Kolokithoula. She was the President of glifaa (LGBT+ Pride in Foreign Affairs Agencies) from 2018-2019.
Sholeh Lee
Sholeh Lee is the Project Director for the renovation project at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. She joined the U.S. Department of State in 2005 and became a Foreign Service Construction Engineer in 2010. She has served overseas in Taiwan, Norway, and Nepal and domestically as the Western Hemisphere’s branch chief for Construction Management and as a Construction Executive in the Near East Asia branch. Prior to joining the Department of State, Sholeh worked as a civil engineer at a Maryland design firm. Sholeh is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and earned an MBA from Loyola University Maryland. Sholeh holds a Professional Engineer (P.E.) license granted by the State of Virginia, a Contracting Officer’s Representative qualification, and is certified as a Senior/Expert Level Federal Program/Project Manager.
Telside Manson
Telside Manson is the Deputy Spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. She joined the Foreign Service in 2003 and has served on multiple continents including positions in Turkey, India, Iraq, and Colombia. Her U.S. assignments were equally as varied beginning with the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, later teaching at the Foreign Service Institute, and most recently serving as a Deputy Director in the Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations. She strives to make connections with foreign counterparts and enjoys being a spokesperson for American diplomacy.
Trishita Maula
Trishita Maula joined the Department of State in 2008 as a management-coned generalist. She is currently serving as the Management Officer in U.S. Embassy Tirana. She has served her consular tour in Bangladesh and has served in management roles in Switzerland, North Macedonia, Croatia, and Podgorica. Ms. Maula is a native New Yorker and graduated Barnard College, Columbia University, with a degree in Economics and Mathematics.
Ambassador Herro Mustafa
Herro Mustafa is the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Bulgaria. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Mustafa has served in Lisbon, New Delhi, Mosul, Beirut, and Athens. She also served in the Bush National Security Council and Obama White House. She is the recipient of notable awards from the State Department, including the Matilda W. Sinclaire Award for superior achievement in a foreign language. She speaks Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Kurdish, Greek, among other languages, and is studying Bulgarian. Ambassador Mustafa grew up in Minot, North Dakota and her family story is the subject of the documentary film American Herro. She has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and a Masters from Princeton University.
Ritu Nalubola
Dr. Ritu Nalubola is the Director of the FDA Europe Office. Over a 20-year career at FDA, she has held various leadership roles supporting FDA’s mission to protect and promote public health. Her portfolio reflects her love of science, passion for policy, and keen interest in global collaborations.
Emily Norris
Emily Yasmin Norris joined the Foreign Service in 2009 and just became a new mother while serving overseas as a Consul at the U.S. Consulate General in Leipzig, Germany. She has worked as Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Surabaya, Indonesia, Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Human Rights Officer in the Office of Iranian Affairs in Washington DC, and Assistant Information Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. As a Public Diplomacy Officer, she believes that no matter how widely people differ, bringing them together ultimately yields common ground. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, she has a degree in Public Policy and International Affairs, with a Certificate in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. She speaks Farsi, French, Arabic, German, and Indonesian.
Dawn Osterholt
Dr. Osterholt is a Regional Medical Officer for the U.S. Department of State and a physician board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. She is in her second tour and previously served at U.S. Embassies in West and Central Africa; she now provides care and supervision for a three-country region in Western Europe. Prior to joining the State Department, she was the Medical Director of a federally qualified health center in rural Virginia. Preceding medical school, Dr. Osterholt earned a Master of Science in Public Health and worked with the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention on programs to improve under-five mortality in low-resource settings. She also worked at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia in their Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control Department. She is married to Brian Watkins, who works remotely for a US firm in the field of Market Research. They have 2 children with whom they enjoy skiing, cooking and bicycling.
Siddha Page
Siddha Page joined the Foreign Service in January 2020 and currently serves as a Political Officer in Embassy Podgorica, Montenegro. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Siddha managed counter biological/chemical terrorism programming and worked on nonproliferation policy with the State Department. Siddha also previously served as the Department of Homeland Security’s Senior Treaty Analyst, where she focused on biological and chemical weapons nonproliferation regimes. She loves her family, her job, and dessert.
Sarah Pierce
Sarah Pierce is a Facility Manager at the U.S. Department of State. She is currently located in Valletta, Malta. She has also been posted in Mexico, Armenia, Paraguay, Washington DC, and Egypt. Sarah received a Master’s of Business Administration from Portland State University. She has worked in Facility Management for the past seven years. She enjoys Facility Management because you learn something new every day on top of being able to physically see your accomplishments.
Ambassador Judy Rising Reinke
Ambassador Judy Rising Reinke has served as chief of mission in Podgorica, Montenegro since November 2018. A 25+ year career Foreign Service Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Judy is proud to have broken a glass ceiling by becoming the first woman from that agency to serve as an Ambassador. During her career, Judy served as a commercial officer in New Delhi, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta, Bonn and Bern, and also served as the Commercial Service’s Regional Director for Western Europe and, later, that agency’s Deputy Director General. Judy received her Bachelors’ Degree at Smith College (where Maya Angelou was her commencement speaker) and her Masters at Princeton University. She enjoys spending time in nature, reading good fiction and photography.
Heather Rogers
Heather Rogers joined the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw as Economic Counselor in August 2020. Her previous assignments include serving as the Deputy Economic Chief at Embassy Hanoi in Vietnam; senior Burma Desk Officer in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2012-2014); a Watch Officer in the Executive Secretariat’s Operations Center (2011-2012); a Consular Officer at Embassy Bogota in Colombia (2009-2011); and a Political Officer at Embassy New Delhi in India (2006-2008). Before joining the Foreign Service in 2006, Heather also served as a Presidential Management Fellow and civil servant at the Department of State. In this capacity, she worked as the Public Diplomacy Desk Officer for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (2003-2006), in the political section at Embassy Skopje in Macedonia (2002-2003), and with the Office of Inspector General (2001-2002). Heather grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. She graduated from the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota in 1997 and received her MPA from Rutgers University in 2001. She also holds a Masters of Science in National Resource Strategy and a concentration in European Studies from National Defense University. Before joining the State Department, she worked for two years at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York. Heather is married, has three children, and a very active dog.
Jennifer Sutton
Jennifer Sutton joined the U.S. Department of State in 2016 and currently serves as Assistant Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus. She previously served in Jamaica. Prior to becoming an FSO, Jennifer was a political and public relations consultant in Los Angeles and Seattle, and held elected office. She earned a Master of Public Policy degree from Pepperdine University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Black Hills State University in South Dakota.
Elia Tello
Elia Tello’s Foreign Service career has taken her from her hometown of Bismarck, ND to Vietnam, Italy, Colombia, Mexico, and now to U.S. Mission to the EU. Her positions have ranged from press attaché, to Deputy Commissioner to the World’s Fair, to Consul General to her current role as Minister Counselor for Public Affairs.
Ambassador Lynne Tracy
Lynne Tracy was sworn in as Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia on Feb. 19, 2019. She is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor for Russia Affairs in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia, 2014-2017. Her other senior leadership positions include Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central Asia in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the Department of State, 2012-2014, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, 2010-2011. Ms. Tracy was the Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, 2006-2009, where she was awarded the Secretary’s Award for Heroism. She was also the Principal Officer at the U.S. Embassy Branch Office in Astana, Kazakhstan, 2004-2006. Other overseas assignments include the U.S. embassies in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She worked in the Office of the Special Envoy to the Newly Independent States at the Department of State in 2000-2001. Ms. Tracy earned a B.A. in Soviet Studies from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and a J.D. from the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio. She received the Distinguished Honor Award in recognition of her performance as Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow. She speaks Russian.
Pamela Tremont
Pamela M. Tremont arrived in Sweden in April 2019, where she served as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy April to November 2019, Deputy Chief of Mission November 2019 to January 2021, and Chargé d’Affaires Jan. 20, 2021 to the present. A career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, Ms. Tremont was Assistance Coordinator and Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv, Ukraine 2017-19, prior to which she served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, 2014-17. Previous assignments include Deputy Director for NATO Policy in the State Department’s European Bureau, Political-Economic Counselor in Lusaka, Zambia, and political-military officer at the U.S. Embassies in London and Ankara, as well as in the Department’s Africa bureau. She has also served in the State Department Operations Center, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Port Louis, Mauritius and the U.S. Consulate General in Calgary, Canada. Ms. Tremont holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Baylor University as well as a Master’s in National Security Resource Strategy from the National Defense University.
Marja Verloop
A career member of the U.S. Department of State’s Senior Foreign Service, Marja Verloop arrived in the Netherlands in June 2019 and assumed responsibility as Chargé d’Affaires for the U.S. Mission in the Netherlands in January of 2021. Since joining the Department of State in 1998, Marja has served as Deputy Executive Director for the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, with administrative responsibility and oversight for 45 overseas posts and 12 domestic offices. Marja’s overseas tours have included New Delhi, India, Ottawa, Canada, Windhoek, Namibia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Warsaw, Poland. Domestically she has served as the State Department’s Director for Innovation, as a desk officer to the European Union, a negotiator in the Office of Global Change, and as a Congressional Fellow. Throughout her career, Marja has also served as a member of the Department’s Leadership Roundtable, mentors incoming officers, and is the recipient of numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards. Born in the Netherlands, Marja was raised and educated in the United States. She earned her B.A. from the University of Southern California, her M.A. from the University of Washington.
Linley Wartenberg
Linley Wartenberg is the assistant to the Chargé d’Affaires at the embassy in Minsk. She previously worked in Baghdad, Iraq, Istanbul, Turkey, and Guangzhou, China, but her hometown is still a big part of her life. That’s Tallahassee, Florida, where the biggest thing in town is Florida State University’s sports teams. In the past, their football team - that’s American football - has been extremely good, but now the basketball teams - both men’s and women’s - are doing really well! Linley is a huge sports person and before joining the Foreign Service, she was a journalist reporting on professional hockey in Detroit for 10 years and three Stanley Cups. She also worked in Morocco for the U.S. Peace Corps, and in North Dakota for AmeriCorps, a service program in the United States.
Gana Washburn
Gana Washburn joined the European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau’s Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in January 2019 after working for the Department of Defense’s “Mission Enduring Freedom" and “Resolute Support" military missions in Kabul, Afghanistan as Linguist and Cultural Advisor. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in French Studies and is a current graduate student majoring in IR/Conflict Resolution with the International Security. She is originally from Mongolia. Gana enjoys watching international news and practicing Bikram hot yoga in her free time.
Kami Witmer
Ms. Witmer serves as the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the European Union. Working as a diplomat for more than 20 years, she has served in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, Suriname, and Washington, DC.
Source: U.S Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
