Pekala, Mark Andrew, 1959-

<p>Mark Pekala has been the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO) since March 2020. Before that, he served as Director of the State Department’s Office of Career Development and Assignments and as Staff Director for the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service. From 2016 to 2018, Ambassador Pekala was Assistant Professor at the National War College, also serving as Vice Commandant and International Affairs Advisor. He was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Latvia (2012-2014) and, from 2014 to 2016, Dean of the School of Professional and Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute. He has served as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Paris, DCM in Tallinn, Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and Senior Director for Russian Affairs on the National Security Council staff. From 1998 to 1999, Ambassador Pekala was a Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University, teaching graduate seminars on U.S.-Russian Relations and European Security.</p>

<p>Ambassador Pekala also served at the U.S. Mission to NATO and in Warsaw. In the State Department he has served on the Russia desk, in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and as the Special Assistant to the Ambassador-at-Large for the New Independent States. He was on the staff that opened the U.S. Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1992.</p>

<p>Ambassador Pekala has received nine State Department Superior Honor Awards (six for individual achievements and three for group accomplishments), seven senior performance awards, two Meritorious Honor Awards, the W. Averell Harriman Award, and the Matilda W. Sinclaire Language Award. He received the Joint Meritorious Service Award from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2018. From the Government of Estonia, he received the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, Third Class, and he received Latvia’s highest state decoration, the Order of the Three Stars. He is an alumnus of the University of Michigan. From Columbia University he received the Master of International Affairs degree, the Certificate from the W. Averell Harriman Institute, and the Master of Philosophy degree in Political Science (all with a specialization in Soviet foreign and defense policy).</p>

<p>Ambassador Pekala speaks Estonian, French, Polish, Russian, and a little Latvian.</p>

<p>Mark Andrew Pekala (born August 21, 1959) is a career foreign service officer who served as United States Ambassador to Latvia from 2012 to 2014, succeeding Judith G. Garber and being succeeded by Nancy Pettit.</p>

<p>He's been married with fellow career diplomat Maria Rosaria Pekala (born Alongi) since 2000. He speaks French, Estonian, Polish and Russian.</p>

<p>The Baltic nation of Latvia, which has been independent for two decades after being part of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1990, has a new U.S. ambassador in residence who has previously served in neighboring Estonia. President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Mark A. Pekala to serve his first ambassadorship in Riga on February 17, 2012. He was confirmed by the Senate on March 29.</p>

<p>Born in Michigan on August 21, 1959, to Anne and Henry Pekala, Mark Pekala earned an A.B. in Political Science at the University of Michigan in 1981, 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.</p>

<p>A career member of the Senior Foreign Service since 1989, Pekala’s early overseas postings included service as consular officer at the embassy in Warsaw, Poland, from March 1990 to September 1991, and as political officer in Baku, Azerbaijan, from May to June 1992. In Washington, junior assignments included service in the Office of Weapons Proliferation Policy, from September 1991 to July 1993, and as Russia Desk Officer from July 1993 to July 1995.</p>

<p>Pekala served as first secretary to the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium, from August 1995 to July 1998, where he worked on the negotiation of the NATO-Russia Founding Act. He was then a Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University from August 1998 to July 1999, where he taught undergraduate and graduate seminars on U.S.-Russia relations, U.S. security policy in Europe, and the U.S. policymaking process. Back at the State Department, he served as special assistant to the ambassador-at-large for the Newly Independent States from July 1999 to July 2000, and as senior watch officer in the Operations Center from July 2000 to February 2001.</p>

<p>Pekala was director for Russian Affairs for the National Security Council from March to August 2001, where he briefed President George W. Bush for his first three summits with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pekala served in the Baltic region for the first time as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Tallinn, Estonia, from July 2002 to July 2005, returning to Washington to serve as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs from July 2005 to June 2007. Back in Europe, Pekala served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Paris, France, from June 2007 to July 2010. Most recently, he has been director of the Entry-Level Division in the Bureau of Human Resources since August 2010.</p>

<p>Mark Pekala has been married since January 2000 to Maria Rosaria (Alongi) Pekala; the couple met in 1996 while working at the United States Mission to NATO in Brussels, she as the special assistant to the United States defense adviser and he as the special assistant to the United States ambassador to NATO. They have two daughters, Julia and Nora. He speaks French, Estonian, Polish and Russian.</p>