Saturday, January 23, 2010
President Obama has chosen a career diplomat, Judith (Judy) G. Garber, to represent the U.S. as ambassador to Latvia, the first career diplomat to the small Baltic nation since Brian E. Carlson served in Riga from 2001 to 2004. Garber’s two immediate predecessors, Catherine Todd Bailey and Chuck. Larson, Jr., were non-career appointees who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 2004 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. Garber was sworn in on August 14, 2009.
Garber earned her bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University. Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1984, Garber worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury. A career foreign service officer, Garber’s previous overseas postings include Economic Counselor in Madrid, Spain; Deputy Economic Counselor in Tel Aviv, Israel; Economic Officer in Prague, Czech Republic; Economic Officer in Mexico City, Mexico; and Vice Consul in Seville, Spain. Garber’s Washington assignments have included Director for Overseas Development Finance in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and director of North Central European Affairs in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs from 2007 to 2009, overseeing bilateral relations with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Slovenia.
Garber is married with two children.
-Matt Bewig
US Ambassador Visits Latvian University (by Thorsten Chr. Pohlmann)
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