An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment. The word is also used informally for people who are known, without national appointment, to represent certain professions, activities, and fields of endeavor, such as sales.
Diplomatic rank is a system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations. A diplomat's rank determines many ceremonial details, such as the order of precedence at official processions, table seatings at state dinners, the person to whom diplomatic credentials should be presented, and the title by which the diplomat should be addressed.
Carmen Maria Martinez is a United States diplomat and a career foreign service officer. She served as the United States Ambassador to Zambia from 2005 to 2008. Prior to that assignment, she was the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to Burma from August 2002 to August 2005. Burma had no U.S. ambassador from 1990 until 2012, so Martinez, as chargé d'affaires, was the senior diplomat in the embassy and the head of the mission.
Richard Merrill Mills Jr. is an American diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to Nigeria since July 2024. He served as the United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations from 2020 to 2024 and, in that capacity, served as the U.S. Chargé d'Affaires and Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations between January 20, 2021, and February 24, 2021, when Linda Thomas-Greenfield became ambassador. He previously served as the U.S. Chargé d'Affaires for Canada.
David Dale Reimer is an American diplomat and member of the Senior Foreign Service. He had served as the United States ambassador to Sierra Leone from 2021 to 2023. He previously served concurrently as the United States ambassador to Mauritius and United States ambassador to Seychelles from 2018 to 2021. He has also served as Chargé d'affaires ad interim to Burundi and Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to Mauritania.
D. Brent Hardt is an American career Senior Foreign Service Officer and present Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, B.C., Canada who served in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and in Political-Military assignments. From 2011-2014 he served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and Plenipotentiary Representative of the United States to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). He most recently served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France beginning in August 2017. Prior to his arrival in Paris, he served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. Central Command and as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. Other assignments include service as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean from 2009-2011, and Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at U.S. Embassies in The Bahamas (2005-2008) and the Holy See in Rome (2002-2005).
W. Patrick Murphy is a career U.S. diplomat. A Senior Foreign Service Officer, he served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2018 to 2019, fulfilling the duties of Acting Assistant Secretary, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Southeast Asia and Multilateral Affairs, 2016–2018. He previously served as Chargé d'affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission in the Kingdoms of Thailand and Lesotho. He was nominated on January 16, 2019 to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath is an American diplomat who is serving as the United States ambassador to Peru since June 20, 2024. She most recently served as deputy chief of mission to Mexico.
Kristina A. Kvien is an American diplomat who has served as United States ambassador to Armenia since February 2023. She previously served as United States chargé d’affaires to Ukraine from May to June 2019 and from January 2020 to May 2022. From June 2019 to January 2020, she was deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of the United States in Kyiv.
Henry V. Jardine is an American diplomat and former military officer serving as the United States ambassador to Mauritius and Seychelles since February 2023.
Eric W. Kneedler is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Rwanda since October 2023.
