The next ambassador to the West Pacific Island nation of Palau will be a career Foreign Service Officer who has served mostly in Asia. Nominated on July 31, Amy J. Hyatt has been management counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, since 2011. If confirmed by the Senate as expected, she would succeed Helen Reed-Rowe, who had served in Ngerulmud since September 2010.

Born circa 1956, Amy Jane Hyatt earned a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1978, a J.D. at Stanford University in 1981, and an M.S.S. at the National Defense University in 2000.

After law school, Hyatt was a litigation attorney in San Francisco until 1985. “I liked practicing law, but thought...I’d do one tour then go back to real life in San Francisco as a lawyer,” Hyatt told an interviewer in 2011. As it turned out, Hyatt stayed and is now a 28-year veteran of the Foreign Service.

Hyatt served early career foreign postings in Seoul, South Korea, and Oslo, Norway. In DC, she served as a political analyst for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1992 to 1994, and as post management officer for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1997 to 1998. She also served overseas assignments in Bangkok, Thailand, and Manila, Philippines, as well as earning her MSS in 2000.

Hyatt served as a management counselor at the embassy in Prague, Czech Republic from 2001 to 2005, and followed with service as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Helsinki, Finland, from 2005 to 2008. She served as a diplomat in residence at Arizona State University from 2008 to 2011. 

Hyatt has three children: Erin, Zach, and Emma.

-Matt Bewig

To Learn More:

Testimony Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)

Diplomat Amy Hyatt (by Steve Seepersaud, Binghamton University Magazine)

Video Interview (Binghamton University Alumni, YouTube)