Heather Mary Hodges (born 1946) is a career United States

foreign service officer A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U ...

. She has been the United States Ambassador to Moldova and the United States Ambassador to Ecuador.

Biography

Hodges is a native of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, United States. She has a B.A. in Spanish from the

College of St. Catherine St. Catherine University (St. Kate's) is a private Catholic university in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was established as one of the first institutions of higher learning specifically for women in the Midwest and was known as the College of St. C ...

, St. Paul, Minnesota, and an M.A. from New York University. She lived and worked in Madrid, Spain, throughout the 1970s. Hodges joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and was assigned to

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, Venezuela. Following Caracas, she served in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

and later in Washington as Peru Desk Officer. In 1987, Ms. Hodges received a Pearson Fellowship to work in the U.S. Congress, where she was counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs. In January 1989, she became Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Bilbao, Spain. In 1991, she returned to the U.S. to serve as Deputy Director of the Office of Cuban Affairs. In 1993, Hodges was assigned to Managua, Nicaragua, as Deputy Chief of Mission. From August 1996 to June 1997, Hodges participated in the Department of State's Senior Seminar, a leadership program for select members of the Foreign Service. She served as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Lima, Peru, from July 1997 to May 2000 and was also Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, from June 2000 to July 2003. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Moldova from September 2003 to May 2006. She was then appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Director General. She was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador on July 15, 2008, arrived in Ecuador in early August, and presented her credentials to President Rafael Correa on October 2, 2008. On April 4, 2011, the Spanish newspaper ''

El Pais EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

'' reported that Ms. Hodges had expressed concern over Ecuador's National Police being corrupt via a cable dated July 10, 2009, which was exposed by WikiLeaks. She warned that their National Police Commander, Jaime Aquilino Hurtado, might be involved in illegal activity. According to '' The New York Times'', this involved "his possible involvement in schemes to extort bribes from a taxi union, steal public funds and ease trafficking of undocumented Chinese immigrants." She also recommended the United States revoke Hurtado's visa. It was also noted that President Correa may have known about Hurtado. On April 5, 2011, Ecuador expelled Hodges from the country after she failed to give the Ecuadorian government a satisfactory explanation of accusations made public in the

WikiLeaks diplomatic cables The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began on Sunday, 28 November 2010 when WikiLeaks began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates, embassies, and d ...

."Ecuador expels US ambassador over Wikileaks cable"
BBC News, April 5, 2011, accessed April 5, 2011.

Awards

* The Government of Spain awarded Hodges the Spanish decoration of "Isabel la Catolica – Encomienda de Numero" for her contributions to

Spain – United States relations , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. * The

Government of Moldova The Government of Moldova ( ro, Guvernul Republicii Moldova) is the government of the Republic of Moldova. It is housed on the Government House, Chișinău, Government House at the Great National Assembly Square, Chișinău, Great National Assemb ...

presented her with the Award of Honor in 2006. * She was awarded a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in the U.S. in 2006.

Gallery

Image:Heather M Hodges.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodges, Heather Mary 1946 births Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Ecuador Ambassadors of the United States to Moldova American women ambassadors New York University alumni People from Cleveland St. Catherine University alumni United States Foreign Service personnel 21st-century American women