The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law announced today that Ambassador Gregory W. Engle (Ret) has joined the leadership team as Associate Director. Ambassador Engle has served as the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomat-in-Residence at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin and most recently as Senior Advisor for International Affairs at The University of Texas International Office.

A career diplomat and Foreign Service officer with extensive international, management and policy experience, Ambassador Engle has a vast portfolio of distinguished service. While on a thirteen-month assignment as Management Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, he managed a full range of administrative functions and oversaw the provision of $450 million of life support services for the United States’ largest diplomatic mission. Before serving in Iraq, Ambassador Engle was the U.S. Ambassador to the Togolese Republic, where he primarily focused on promoting representative government and greater respect for human rights.

Ambassador Engle joined the Foreign Service (U.S. Department of State) in 1981, following a tour as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea. He has served in management positions in Pakistan, Germany, Washington, Ethiopia and Cyprus.  He was the recipient of the State Department’s prestigious Leamon R. Hunt Award for Administrative Excellence for his service in Ethiopia, in part for his role in the search and recovery mission that followed the plane crash that killed Texas Congressman Mickey Leland and 18 other Americans and Ethiopians.  Following his assignment in Cyprus, Ambassador Engle served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 1992 to 1995, during which that country made its transition from decades of one-man rule to a democratically elected government. From 1996 to 1999, he was U.S. Consul General in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Upon his return to Washington, Ambassador Engle served as Director of International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) from 1999 to 2001, Special Coordinator for the African Crisis Response Initiative from 2001 to 2002, and Director of the Office of Regional and Security Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs from 2002 to 2003.

“The Strauss Center works to develop practical, real-world solutions to today’s pressing problems. Ambassador Engle has done just that every day of his career,” said Francis J. Gavin, Director of the Strauss Center.  “We are fortunate to have the benefit of his extraordinary background in international affairs and management, and we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome him as part of the leadership team.”

“I am honored to be a part of a center that values on-the-ground experience in addition to intellectual innovation and leadership,” Ambassador Engle said. “I look forward to contributing to the Strauss Center’s mission and to bringing new perspectives to its management.”

Ambassador Engle’s appointment follows the departure of Strauss Center’s first Associate Director, Jill Angelo, who held the position from January 2007 until February 2009.  Angelo, who led the Strauss Center’s communications and outreach efforts during its launch and initial development, was instrumental in shaping and advancing the Strauss Center’s policy mission and its strategic communications effort. Angelo left to spend more time with her six-month-old son but will stay on with the Strauss Center as a Special Projects consultant.

The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law is a non-partisan research center at The University of Texas at Austin dedicated to promoting policy-relevant scholarship on the problems and opportunities created by our increasingly globalized and interconnected world. For more information on the Strauss Center, please visit www.RobertStraussCenter.org.