Joseph William Westphal (born January 26, 1948) is an American politician and diplomat who was most recently the

United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia The United States recognized the government of King Ibn Saud in 1931, but it was not until 1939 when it appointed its first U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Bert Fish, then resident in Cairo and ambassador to Egypt. Fish made one trip down to Jed ...

. He served as the 30th

United States Under Secretary of the Army The United States under secretary of the Army is the second-highest-ranking civilian official of the United States Department of the Army, serving directly under the United States Secretary of the Army. The Secretary and Under Secretary, togethe ...

from 2009 to 2014.

Early life and education

Westphal was born in Santiago, Chile. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

in New York in 1970, a Master of Arts degree from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

in 1973 and a Ph.D. in political science from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

in 1980.

Career

Westphal served as the head of the department of political science at

between 1975 and 1987 and as an adjunct professor at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

while working at the law firm of

Patton Boggs Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with 42 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in the ...

. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works from 1998 to 2001 and the Acting Secretary of the Army in 2001. He also served as chancellor of the

University of Maine System The University of Maine System (UMaine System or UMS) is a state university system in the U.S. state of Maine. It was created in 1968 by the Maine Legislature and consists of eight institutions, each with a distinct mission and regional character. ...

from 2002 to 2006 and was a professor of

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

from 2002 to 2009. He later served as the provost, at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Westphal was a member of President Obama's Transition Team for Defense and was appointed as the

in September 2009. He was confirmed by the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

as ambassador to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

on March 26, 2014, and sworn in the same day. Westphal is a senior global fellow and the Chung Sun Term Professor at the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania. Westphal is also a senior fellow at the Wharton Leadership Program at UPenn and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Westphal, Joseph W. 1948 births Living people People from Santiago Adelphi University alumni Oklahoma State University alumni University of Missouri alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Saudi Arabia Clinton administration personnel Oklahoma State University faculty Obama administration personnel The New School faculty United States Department of Defense officials United States Under Secretaries of the Army University of Maine faculty