Jacobson, Roberta Steinfeld, 1960-

<p>Roberta S. Jacobson (born April 14, 1960) is an American diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Mexico, serving from June 2016 to May 2018. She previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from March 30, 2012, to May 5, 2016. The United States Senate approved her nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico on April 28, 2016. In March 2018, Jacobson announced her resignation effective May 5.</p>

<p>Born Roberta Ann Steinfeld, she was raised in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Her father, Julian was an electrical engineer who served as the vice president of Mid-Island Electric Supply in Plainview, New York and her mother, Gloria, was a teacher and the supervisor of family and neighborhood counseling for the Bergen County Department of Health Services. Her parents were both active in the local community, with her mother serving on the board of education as its president and her father appointed to serve on the municipality's board of adjustment. She graduated from Dwight Morrow High School.</p>

<p>She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Brown University, then spent 1982 through 1984 at the United Nations Center for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. She earned her Master of Arts degree in Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1986.</p>

<p>In 1988, she worked at the United States National Security Council. The next year, she joined the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in the United States Department of State as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, becoming Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary in 1992. She also served as Coordinator for Cuban Affairs. From 1996 to 2000, she was director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination at the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, covering issues such as civil-military relations, human rights, foreign assistance, and counter-narcotics throughout the hemisphere.</p>

<p>From 2000 to 2002, she was Deputy Chief of Mission in the United States Embassy in Peru. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents the interests of career diplomats, objected to her appointment because the post is normally reserved for a foreign service officer and she was a civil service employee. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright overrode the recommendation of a State Department grievance board that recommended Jacobson be reassigned. The U.S. ambassador to Peru, John Hamilton, had chosen Jacobson over several career diplomats. He defended her selection in November 2000 saying: "She is the best manager I've come across in my 31 years in the Foreign Service".</p>

<p>Jacobson was Director of the State Department's Office of Mexican Affairs from December 2002 to June 2007. At that point, she became Deputy Assistant Secretary for Canada, Mexico and NAFTA issues in the Bureau. She was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs from December 2010 until July 2011, with responsibility for regional political and economic issues, management and personnel, and regional security issues.</p>

<p>When Arturo Valenzuela left the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, she became Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. U.S. President Barack Obama named her Assistant Secretary of State and she was sworn into office on March 30, 2012.</p>

<p>Jacobson led a U.S. delegation to Havana for historic talks with the government of Cuba in January 2015. According to advance media reports, she was expected to press Cuba to drop travel restrictions on American diplomats and propose that Cuba and the United States establish an embassy in Washington and Havana respectively.</p>

<p>On November 10, 2015, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Obama's nomination of Jacobson as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico by a vote of 12–7. Opposition to her appointment came primarily from the Republicans on the committee, notably presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio. He and six other Republican senators, along with Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, raised concerns about her position on normalisation of relations between Cuba and the U.S., human rights issues, and the failed extradition of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who had escaped Mexico's highest security prison in July 2015.</p>

<p>The United States Senate approved her appointment to be U.S. Ambassador to Mexico on April 28, 2016. She presented her credentials to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on June 20, 2016.</p>

<p>On March 1, 2018, Jacobson filed her notice of resignation, effective May 5, 2018.</p>

<p>Jacobson is married to Jonathan Jacobson. They live with their two sons in Potomac, Maryland. She is Jewish.</p>

<p>The brain drain at the State Department sucked away another career diplomat recently, as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Steinfeld Jacobson announced her decision to resign on March 1, 2018. Coming just a few days after special envoy for North Korea Joseph Yun announced his retirement, and weeks after undersecretary of state for political affairs Thomas Shannon did likewise, Jacobson’s exit weakens U.S. diplomacy with Mexico and underscores the deepening crises in U.S.-Mexican relations and within the State Department as a whole. Jacobson’s resignation is effective May 5, short of two years after she started in Mexico City.</p>

<p>President Obama named Jacobson ambassador on June 1, 2015, her first ambassadorship and second embassy post, having spent her entire State Department career working on U.S.-Latin American relations. Her nomination was not approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until November 10, and not approved by the full Senate until April 28, 2016. Fluent in Spanish, Jacobson was the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to Mexico after 55 men served in that position or its equivalent.</p>

<p>Born April 14, 1960, Jacobson is from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Her father, Julian Steinfeld, was vice president and a principal of Mid-Island Electric Supply. Her mother, Gloria Steinfeld, was supervisor of family and neighborhood counseling for the Bergen County Department of Health Services. Roberta Jacobson earned her BA from Brown University in 1982 and worked for the United Nations Center for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs from 1982 to 1984. She returned to school to earn an MA in International Relations, concentrating in U.S.-Latin American relations, from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in 1986.</p>

<p>Jacobson entered the State Department in 1986 as a presidential management intern and was assigned to the National Security Council for a time in 1988. She then began her long career with the Bureau for Western Hemisphere Affairs, working directly for the assistant secretary, first as special assistant from 1989 to 1992, and then as executive assistant from 1993 to 1994. Jacobson served as the Bureau’s coordinator for Cuban affairs from 1994 to 1996, and from 1996 to 2000, she was director of the Bureau’s Office of Policy Planning and Coordination, covering issues such as civil-military relations, human rights, foreign assistance, presidential travel, and counter-narcotics.</p>

<p>Jacobson’s first overseas posting came in 2000, when she was named deputy chief of mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, where she served until December 2002, during the fall of the Alberto Fujimori regime and the creation of the truth and reconciliation commission. Her appointment brought criticism from the Foreign Service community as DCM posts are, by State Department regulations, supposed to go only to career Foreign Service employees. Jacobson is not a foreign service officer.</p>

<p>Returning stateside, Jacobson served as director of the Office of Mexican Affairs from December 2002 to June 2007, and as deputy assistant secretary for Canada, Mexico, and NAFTA issues from June 2007 until December 2010.</p>

<p>Jacobson served as principal deputy assistant secretary from December 6, 2010, to July 2011, with responsibility for regional political, security and economic issues. In addition, she was the senior coordinator for the State Department’s “Security Initiatives” in the Western Hemisphere (Merida Initiative, Central America Regional Security Initiative, Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, and Colombia Strategic Development Initiative).</p>

<p>Jacobson took over as the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs on July 18, 2011. On September 27, Obama nominated her to be assistant secretary, and she was finally confirmed by the Senate on March 29, 2012.</p>

<p>As assistant secretary, much of Jacobson’s work involved negotiations with Cuba leading up to the normalization of diplomatic relations. Her success in those efforts created problems when her nomination came up for a vote in the Senate, as Republicans delayed the vote for eleven months.</p>

<p>Jacobson has written several articles, including “The United States and the Western Hemisphere: A Relationship on the Rise” (Ambassador’s Review; 2015), “Women and the Rule of Law: A View from the Americas” (Fletcher Forum ff World Affairs; 2014), “10 Things You Didn’t Know About U.S. –Latin America Relations” (Americas Quarterly; 2013) and “Liberation Theology as a Revolutionary Ideology in Latin America” (Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Summer 1986).</p>

<p>Jacobson’s husband, Jonathan, works for the Environmental Protection Agency. They have two sons, Gil and Daniel.</p>

<p>Ambassador Roberta S. Jacobson is a Senior Advisor at ASG, where she draws on more than thirty years of distinguished diplomatic experience to advise clients of the firm’s Americas practice.</p>

<p>Until May 2018, she served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico, where she oversaw the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship and managed a broad array of issues, including trade and investment, security and immigration, the environment, and human rights.</p>

<p>Her senior-level U.S. government experience also included serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Canada, Mexico and NAFTA, Director of the State Department’s Office of Mexican Affairs, and Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Peru. In the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, she also served as Director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination and as coordinator for Cuban affairs.</p>

<p>Earlier in her career, she worked at the United Nations’ Center for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs.</p>

<p>Ambassador Jacobson was a Fall 2018 Pritzker Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, where she taught a seminar on “Big Issues in Latin America.” She is regularly interviewed on Latin American business and politics in outlets including Axios, CNN, NBC, National Public Radio, the <i>New York Times</i>, <i>Reuters</i>, and the <i>Washington Post</i>.</p>

<p>Ambassador Jacobson holds a M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. from Brown University. She is fluent in Spanish.</p>