Palmer, Virginia Evelyn, 1963-

<p>On September 18, 2014, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the nomination of Virginia E. Palmer, a career Foreign Service officer, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Malawi. If confirmed by the full Senate, it will be the first ambassadorial posting for Palmer.</p>

<p>The daughter of Richard and Becky Palmer, Palmer is from University City, Missouri, and attended University City High School. Her father, Richard H. Palmer, taught theatre at nearby Washington University. She went to Georgetown University, earning a B.S. in Foreign Service in 1983. She went on to earn an M.A. at the University of Virginia in 1986 and joined the Foreign Service that year.</p>

<p>Her first assignment was as a consular officer in Calgary, Canada. Her next duty station was a bit more exotic: Beijing, where Palmer was an economic officer at the U.S. Embassy. She returned to Washington in 1991 as a watch officer at the State Department Operations Center and in 1992 was named Libya desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.</p>

<p>In 1993, Palmer went to Zimbabwe as a political officer at the embassy in Harare and in 1998 began a similar job at the consulate in Hong Kong. She returned to Africa in 2001 as the regional labor officer at the U.S. mission to Kenya and in 2002 was named economic counselor there.</p>

<p>Palmer was brought back to Washington in 2004 as director of economic policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and in 2005 was named the State Department’s deputy coordinator for counter terrorism.</p>

<p>Palmer was made deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2008. While there, she helped coordinate the continuing resolution to the Vietnam War, including repatriation of soldiers’ remains and cleanup of chemicals, including Agent Orange. In 2011, Palmer went to Pretoria, South Africa, as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy.</p>

<p>Palmer is married to Ismail Asmal, who’s also a Foreign Service officer. They have two daughters, Aliya and Nadia. Palmer speaks French and Chinese.</p>

<p>Ambassador Virginia E. Palmer became Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Energy Resources on November 4, 2019. She is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Minister Counselor. She was most recently the Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. She served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Malawi from January 2015 until June 2019. There, she oversaw an annual bilateral assistance budget of more than $500 million and the work of eleven U.S. government agencies. As Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa from 2011 to 2014, she was responsible for the strategic direction and operational effectiveness of 1,100 staff from 28 U.S. government agencies and oversaw a $480 million/annum PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS) program budget. She negotiated agreement with the South African government for their takeover of HIV/AIDS care and treatment programs, the first such transition in the world. As Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam from 2008-2011, she promoted major trade initiatives and helped shape new U.S. dioxin (Agent Orange) remediation efforts.</p>

<p>From 2005-2008, Ambassador Palmer was the State Department’s Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, responsible for terrorist finance issues and establishing regional initiatives to strengthen partner nations’ capacity to degrade terrorist capability. From 2004-2005, she was Director of the East Asia Bureau’s Office of Economic Policy and the alternate U.S. Senior Official for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). From 2001-2004, she was Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.</p>

<p>Other postings during her 33-year career include assignments in Canada, Zimbabwe, China, and Hong Kong working on political-military affairs, corruption, trade and agriculture, labor and human rights issues, health and development. In the State Department, she served in the Office of Maghreb Affairs and the Secretary’s Operations Center. She is the recipient of numerous Superior Honor, Meritorious Honor and Senior Performance awards.</p>

<p>Ambassador Palmer obtained her Masters and did doctoral studies at the University of Virginia. She received a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University and also attended Washington University in St. Louis. She speaks Chinese and French.</p>

<p>Virginia Evelyn Palmer (born 1963) is an American diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to Malawi. She was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate, beginning the assignment in January 2015.</p>

<p>Palmer is the daughter of Becky and Richard Palmer, who was a professor of drama at Washington University in St. Louis. She grew up in University City, Missouri, and graduated from University City High School (Missouri). She attended Georgetown University and earned a B.S. in Foreign Service in 1983. She then earned an M.A. at the University of Virginia in 1986.</p>

<p>In 1986, following completion of her graduate studies, Palmer joined the Foreign Service. Her early assignments included serving as Consular Officer at U.S. Consulate Calgary, Canada and as Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. International assignments also include ones in Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Kenya and Vietnam. She was Director of the East Asia Bureau's Office of Economic Policy from 2004 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008 she served in the Department of State as the Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism.</p>

<p>When she was nominated by President Barack Obama to be U.S. Ambassador to Malawi, she was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, a position she held since 2011. In that role, Palmer welcomed Obama as he visited three nations in Africa, and explained to local media, "This visit highlights the potential of Africa and our President to interact and highlight the role of the 600 American companies that are already operating in South Africa and are creating jobs in South Africa."</p>

<p>Delays in the Senate kept her nomination, as well as those of many other ambassador nominees, from being approved. The American Foreign Service Association expressed concern that delays in Senate proceedings were putting the U.S. at risk due to the absence of ambassadors in countries engaged in "the war on Ebola", the killer virus which dominated the U.S.-Africa summit in 2014.</p>

<p>After assuming her role as Malawi ambassador, Palmer became vocal in defense of civil rights for gays.</p>

<p>Palmer was succeeded by Robert Scott on August 7, 2019.</p>

<p>In addition to English, Palmer speaks Chinese and French. Palmer is married to Ismail Asmal, who is also a Foreign Service Officer. They have two daughters.</p>