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Name: Sison, Michele
Current Position: Former Ambassador
A native of Virginia, Michele J. Sison is the first Filipino-American ambassador from the United States. Her mother is Veronica Sison and her father, Pablo B. Sison was originally from Pangasinan, a province in the Philippines. She was confirmed by the US Senate on August 1, 2008 as the United States Ambassador to Lebanon. She arrived in Beirut on February 5, 2008 as Chargé d’Affaires. She served as ambassador until August 7, 2010.
Sison earned her BA in political science from Wellesley College and also attended the London School of Economics.
A career member of the Senior Foreign Service (Class of Minister-Counselor), Sison has served in Washington, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (1982-1984), Lome, Togo (1984-1988), Cotonou, Benin (1988-1991), Douala, Cameroon (1991-1993), and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (1993-1996). She served as consul general at the US Consulate General in Chennai, India (1996-1999) and as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan (1999-2002).
Sison served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South Asian Affairs before being appointed ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, where she served from August 2004 through January 2008.
Sison has two daughters, Alexandra Katherine Knight and Jessica Elizabeth Knight, both in college. She is separated from her husband, Jeffrey Jones Hawkins.
