Mary A. Ryan

Mary A. Ryan "assumed the duties of Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs on May 12, 1993.

"Ambassador Ryan, who entered the Foreign Service in 1966, began her career as Rotational Officer in Naples. She then served as Personnel Officer in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and as Consular Officer at the Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico. Her succeeding tours of duty were as Roving Administrative Officer for Africa and as Post Management Officer in the Bureau of African Affairs in Washington. She went on to become Career Development Officer in the Bureau of Personnel also in Washington. Returning overseas in 1980, she served as Administrative Counselor at U.S. embassies in Abidjan, Côte D'Ivoire and Khartoum, Sudan.  Ambassador Ryan has also been a Foreign Service Inspector and the Executive Director of the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs. She was Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Management for 3 years immediately before being assigned as Ambassador to Swaziland in 1988.

"Returning to Washington in 1990, Ambassador Ryan served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Assigned as Director of the Kuwait Task Force following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, she served in this capacity until her assignment to the United Nations Special Commission on the Elimination of Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, as the Commission’s first Director of Operations. She returned from New York to take up her duties as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs in the fall of 1991.

"Ambassador Ryan was the recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 1998 and 1992, the Arnold L. Raphel Award in 1996 and the Award for Outstanding Public Service in 2001. She was promoted to Career Minister in 1992 and Career Ambassador in 1999.

"Ambassador Ryan was born in New York City and has a BA and MA from St. John’s University in New York."


 * Director, American Academy of Diplomacy