List of University of Michigan Law and Government Alumni - Ambassadors

Ambassadors

• H. Gardner Ackley (MA, PhD) formerly the Henry Carter Adams Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Political Economy. A member of the U-M faculty for 43 years, Ackley was a leader in national economic affairs for several decades, including serving as an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. An expert on the Italian economy, he also was ambassador to Italy.
• Paul H. Boeker (MA Economics) - United States Ambassador to Jordan (1984–87); Director, Foreign Service Institute (1980–83); United States Ambassador to Bolivia (1977–80)
• Anson Burlingame, United States Ambassador to China (1861–70)
• Lawrence E. Butler(BUS: MBA) US Ambassador to Macedonia, 2002–05;UN Official Principal Deputy High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina (2005–present);US Ambassador to Macedonia (2002–05); US National Security Council Staff, Director of European Affairs (1997–99); US Ambassador to Serbia ad interim (1995–96); US State Department Deputy Chief of Mission, Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro (-1995);US State Department Deputy Chief of Mission, Copenhagen, Denmark (past); US State Department Deputy Chief of Mission, Dublin, Ireland (past)
• Emilio Cárdenas (LAW: LLM 1966) Between 1992 and 1996, he served in a variety of capacities at the United Nations. He was appointed Ambassador and Argentina’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Argentina’s Ambassador to Dominica and Guyana. As such, he was a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for two years (1994–1995).
• Luis CdeBaca (J.D. 1993) Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the United States Department of State; was lead trial counsel in the largest slavery prosecution in U.S. history
• John R. Dawson (B.A. 1973), United States Ambassador to Peru, 2002–03
• Robert F. Ellsworth (J.D. 1949), U.S. Representative from Kansas (1961–1969); United States Permanent Representative to NATO (1969–1971)
• Homer S. Ferguson (B.A. 1913), judge of the United States Court of Military Appeals (1956–1971); Ambassador to the Philippines (1955–1956); judge of the United States Court of Military Appeals at Washington, D.C., 1956–1971; U.S. Senator from Michigan (1943–1955); circuit judge of the circuit court for Wayne County, Michigan (1929–1942)
• James Goodby or James Eugene Goodby (MDNG: 1951-1952), United States Ambassador to Finland (1980–1981)
• David Hermelin, (BUS: BBA 1958) - Entrepreneur, philanthropist and former United States Ambassador to Norway. Ross School benefactor.
• Aubrey Hooks (MA 1984) US Ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire
• Leo J. Keena appointed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as the United States Ambassador to Honduras from February 1935 to May 1937 and as United States Ambassador to South Africa from July 1937 to August 1942
• Philip Lader (LSA: MA) - United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1997-2001
• Melvyn Levitsky, (BA) a retired Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service, teaches international relations at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and is Senior Fellow of the School’s International Policy Center. During his 35-year career as a U.S. diplomat, Ambassador Levitsky was Ambassador to Brazil from 1994–98 and before that held such senior positions as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, Executive Secretary of the State Department, Ambassador to Bulgaria, Deputy Director of the Voice of America, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights.
• Douglas L. McElhaney (BA International Affairs) United States Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina from 2004–Present. Entered the Foreign Service in 1975.
• William Bryant Milam (MA 1970) US Ambassador to Pakistan, 1998–2001
• Thomas J. Miller (PhD 1975) U.S. ambassador to Greece. He was also U.S. ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Robert G. Neumann also known as Robert Gerhard Neumann. (Ph.D 1946). Formerly United States Ambassador to Afghanistan 1969-73. Administrator: Director, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University (1976–81).US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (Jun-1981 to Jul-1981), United States Ambassador to Morocco (1973–76).
• David George Newton (MA 1970) US Ambassador to Iraq, 1984–88
• Susan D. Page (A.B.), nominated, in 2011 by President Obama, to the post of U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan.
• Mark A. Pekala, (A.B. 1981) confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Latvia in 2012. Earned a Master’s in International Affairs at the Columbia University School of International Affairs in 1983, and an M.Phil. in Political Science at Columbia University in 1988.
• Peter A. Prahar, (B.A.) A former Air Force translator, Mr. Prahar, is the latest ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), a country of tiny, scattered islands in the Western Pacific. In 1983, the US and FSM governments entered into a status of Free Association, which provides Micronesia with significant financial assistance in exchange for U.S. defense rights in the region. The FSM islands were part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, established after World War II by the United Nations but administered by the United States beginning in 1947. The FSM consists of four states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae.
• Clark T. Randt, Jr. (LAW: JD 1975) US Ambassador to China, 2001–2009
• Margaret Scobey (Ph.D ) US Ambassador to Syria; as of 2008, US Ambassador to Egypt
• Marshall D. Shulman, (A.B. 1937) the principal architect of Columbia University’s Russian studies program. Dr. Shulman was the longest serving director of the Russian Institute at Columbia, which became the W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union in 1982, after Dr. Shulman persuaded Mr. Harriman and his wife, Pamela, to endow the institute with $11.5 million. He also held the rank of ambassador as the principal adviser on Soviet matters to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance in the Carter administration and was a speechwriter for Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson in the Truman administration. His best known book, "Stalin’s Foreign Policy Reappraised" (1963), was a staple in Soviet studies for many years, and his 1966 book of lectures, Beyond the Cold War, foreshadowed the détente between the Soviet Union and the United States that occurred during the Nixon administration.
• William Graves Sharp, (LAW: JD 1881) a Congressional Representative from Ohio; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first, Sixty-second, and Sixty-third Congresses and served from March 4, 1909, to July 23, 1914, when he resigned to become Ambassador to France, in which capacity he served until April 14, 1919;
• Louis B. Susman, former Vice Chairman Citigroup Capital Markets, nominated Ambassador to Great Britain in 2009
• Edwin Uhl, Acting US Secretary of State and Ambassador to Germany during the Cleveland Administration.
• Jack Hood Vaughn (BA, MA) was the second Director of the United States Peace Corps succeeding Sargent Shriver. He later served as Ambassador to both Colombia and Panama.
• Gary Waissi (COE: Ph.D.), dean of ASU's School of Global Management and Leadership at the West campus, has earned recognition as Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 2006. The recognition was awarded by the President of the Republic of Finland, Tarja Halonen, and is based on civilian accomplishments while Waissi served as Honorary Consul of Finland in Michigan from 1998 to 2006.
• Ronald N. Weiser (BUS: BBA 1966) - Former US Ambassador to Slovak Republic. Founder of McKinley Associates.
• G. Mennen Williams (J.D.), (February 23, 1911 – February 2, 1988), was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. An heir to a personal grooming products fortune, he was known as "Soapy," and wore a trademark green bow tie with white polka dots. Ambassador to the Philippines.