Mary Martin Ourisman served as U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) from October 31, 2006, until the end of George W. Bush's term as president.

 

She was born February 1, 1946, in Mexia, Texas. She received a B.S. Degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1970, and further education in the arts and interior design at the Academy of Arts College in San Francisco and the New York School of Interior Design. President George W. Bush appointed her to the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center, where she was a founding member of the Center’s International Committee. She has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera. Ourisman has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Blair House, the President’s guest house for foreign Heads of State and is Emeritus Trustee of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Extremely active in Republican politics, Ourisman and her husband, car tycoon Mandy Ourisman, donated $443,620 to Republican candidates and committees between 1999 and 2006 alone.