Mull, Stephen D., 1958-

<p>Getting expelled from the country is usually a disastrous way for a young foreign service officer to end only his second foreign posting, and would seem to foreclose a return assignment—unless your name is Stephen Mull. Nominated by President Obama on July 10 to be the next ambassador to Poland, Mull was expelled by the communist government there in 1986. Mull appeared at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on September 12.</p>

<p>Born April 30, 1958, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to mother Faith M. Spracklin, Stephen Mull recalled for a hometown reporter that he wanted a diplomatic career as early as elementary school. Mull graduated from Reading High School in 1976 and earned a BS in International Politics at Georgetown University in 1980.</p>

<p>Mull joined the Foreign Service in March 1982, and holds the rank of Career Minister. His first overseas assignment was to serve as a consular officer in the Bahamas from 1982 to 1984, where he met and married Cheri Stephan, herself the daughter of career diplomats. His second overseas posting was as second secretary in Poland from 1984 to 1986, during the period of martial law and the repression of the Solidarity labor union movement, where he did such a good job of reporting on Solidarity activities that the Polish government accused him of espionage and ordered him to leave the country three weeks before his term was up; he stayed and left on schedule.</p>

<p>From Poland Mull was sent to do a similar job in apartheid South Africa, where he served as political officer in the Black Politics Unit at the embassy in Pretoria, from 1986 to 1990. Back in the States, Mull was deputy director of the State Department Operations Center from 1991 to 1993. He then returned to Poland to find the dissidents he had been reporting on were now part of the government; he served as political counselor at the embassy in Warsaw from 1993 to 1997.</p>

<p>Back in Washington, Mull was director of the Office of Southern European Affairs from 1997 to 1998 and deputy executive secretary of state from 1998 to 2000. For his first posting to Asia, Mull was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 2000 to 2003.</p>

<p>Mull served his first ambassadorship as ambassador to Lithuania from 2003 to 2006. He then took a series of headquarters assignments, starting with service as acting assistant secretary of state for Political-Military Affairs from January 2007 through August 2008, as senior advisor to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns from August 2008 to June 2010, and as executive secretary of the State Department from June 2010 to August 2012. In addition, at the beginning of the Obama administration, he exercised the authority of the Office of the Under Secretary for International Security Affairs and Arms Control pending the arrival of the permanent under secretary.</p>

<p>Mull is a member of the Policy Council of the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, a private non-profit dedicated to a strong Foreign Service. Mull and wife Cheri Stephan have one child, Ryan.</p>

<p>Stephen D. Mull (born April 30, 1958) is a Senior Foreign Service officer who was most recently the Acting Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. He previously served as United States Ambassador to Poland, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs and United States Ambassador to Lithuania.</p>

<p>Ambassador Mull holds the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign Service.</p>

<p>On September 18, 2015, Mull was appointed as the United States Lead Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Implementation, tasked with carrying out the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by United States Secretary of State John Kerry.</p>

<p>Mull was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Politics in 1980.</p>

<p>Mull is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service in the class of Career Ambassador. He previously served as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Jakarta, Indonesia, and has served as a Consular or Political Officer for the U.S. Missions in Poland, the Bahamas, and South Africa since the beginning of his career in the Foreign Service in 1982.</p>

<p>Prior to his assignment in Jakarta, Mull worked as Deputy Director of the State Department Operations Center, as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, as Director of the Office of Southern European Affairs in the Bureau of European Affairs, and as Deputy Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State.</p>

<p>On March 10, 2003, then-U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Mull as the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania. After being confirmed by the Senate, he assumed his position on August 26, 2003. He completed his tour of duty on July 18, 2006.</p>

<p>On April 30, 2009, Mull testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on international efforts to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia.</p>

<p>Mull is married to Cheri Stephan. The Mulls have one child, Ryan.</p>

<p>Stephen Mull was appointed the United States Ambassador to Poland on October 24, 2012. He speaks Polish fluently.</p>

<p><b>Vice Provost for Global Affairs<br>
Stephen D. Mull</b></p>
<p>Stephen D. Mull is Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia. In this role he is the primary lead on global relations at the University, responsible for developing a strategic vision, designing outreach, and overseeing international activities. Steve will oversee institutional development of global partnerships and develop a wide array of services, programs, experiences, and strategic partnerships that promote global imagination within the university community.</p>

<p>Mull has served in a broad range of U.S. national security positions, most recently as Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, working as the day-to-day manager of overall regional and bilateral policy issues, and overseeing the bureaus for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South and Central Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and International Organizations. He served as Lead Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Implementation from August 2015 until August 2017, in which capacity he led U.S. government interagency efforts and diplomacy to implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Mull was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Poland from 2012 until 2015 and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania from 2003 to 2006. He has been both Executive Secretary of the State Department and the Senior Advisor to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He has also recently served as Resident Senior Fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.</p>

<p>Ambassador Mull is the recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards, two Distinguished Honor Awards, the Baker-Wilkins Award for Outstanding Deputy Chief of Mission, two Superior Honor Awards, and more than a dozen Senior Foreign Service performance awards. He joined the Foreign Service in March 1982, and holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. He is a 1980 graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.</p>