Vicki J. Huddleston
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Vicki J. Huddleston (born 1942) is a retired U.S.
diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
who served as
Ambassador 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 sov ...
to Mali, and U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar.


Career

Ambassador Huddleston is a retired career Senior Foreign Service Officer whose last assignment was as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs in the Office of the
Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
from June 2009 through December 2011. Before that she was
Chargé d'Affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
ad interim to Ethiopia, United States Ambassador to Mali, Principal Officer of the
U.S. Interests Section in Havana The United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba or USINT Havana (the State Department telegraphic address) represented United States interests in Cuba from September 1, 1977, to July 20, 2015. It was staffed by ...
, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar. She was Chief of
United States Interests Section in Havana The United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba or USINT Havana (the State Department telegraphic address) represented United States interests in Cuba from September 1, 1977, to July 20, 2015. It was staffed by ...
from 1999–2002 and was earlier the Deputy and then the Coordinator of the Office of Cuban Affairs. Prior to joining the Department of Defense, she was a visiting scholar at Brookings Institution. She was Chief of Party for a USAID-funded capacity building project in Haiti from 2013-2015. Ambassador Huddleston was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics of the
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
Kennedy School of Government and an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow on the staff of Senator
Jeff Bingaman Jesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman Jr. (born October 3, 1943) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from New Mexico from 1983 to 2013, for 5 terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Chairman of Committee Outreac ...
(D-NM). She began her overseas career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru. She also worked for the
American Institute for Free Labor Development The American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) was established in late 1961 by the AFL–CIO in the western hemisphere. It received funding from the US government, mostly through USAID (United States Agency for International Development) ...
(AIFLD) in Peru and Brazil. Additional assignments as a career Foreign Service Officer include economic and consular officer in Sierra Leone, economic officer in Mali, Office of Mexican Affairs, and the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Huddleston earned a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from the University of Colorado. She has received U.S. Department of State awards, including a
Distinguished Honor Award The Distinguished Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and USAID. It is presented to groups or i ...
and a
Presidential Meritorious Service Award President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...
. In 2008, she was a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Team for the U.S. Department of State. She is the co-author of "Learning to Salsa: New Steps in U.S.-Cuba Relations," and opinion pieces in '' The New York Times'', '' The Miami Herald'', and '' The Washington Post''. She is a former commentator for
NBC-Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primarily ...
. She currently speaks and provides commentary on Cuba and Africa. Huddleston is currently a Consultant to the Transnational Strategy Group, within their Cuba Business Advisory Practice Group.Cuba Business Advisory Practice Group
Transnational Strategy Group


Personal life

Ambassador Huddleston lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is married to a retired US Foreign Service officer; they have two children, Robert and Alexandra.


Works

*''Learning to salsa : new steps in U.S.-Cuba relations'', Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2010. , * ''Our Woman in Havana: a diplomat's chronicle of America's long struggle with Castro's Cuba.'' Woodstock: Overlook, 2018. ,


References


External links


U. S. Department of Defense: Biography of Vicki J. Huddleston
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Huddleston, Vicki J. 1942 births Living people University of Colorado alumni Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Ambassadors of the United States to the Comoros Ambassadors of the United States to Madagascar Ambassadors of the United States to Mali United States Foreign Service personnel American women ambassadors 20th-century American diplomats 21st-century American diplomats 20th-century American women 21st-century American women