Tracey Ann Jacobson named new acting US ambassador to Bangladesh

She will join the US embassy in Dhaka as chargé d’affaires ad interim on Jan 11

Diplomat Tracey Ann Jacobson has been named the new acting US ambassador to Bangladesh.

Jacobson, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, will join the US mission in Dhaka as chargé d’affaires ad interim on Jan 11, a statement issued by the embassy said on Thursday.

Over the course of her distinguished career, she has served as US ambassador three times – to Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kosovo, it said.

Most recently, Jacobson served as a senior advisor to the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

Prior to that assignment, she served as chargé d’affaires ad interim at the US embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In addition to her senior leadership roles overseas, Jacobson helped to shape the future of the foreign service as dean of the School of Professional and Area Studies and then as deputy director of the National Foreign Affairs Training Center.

Among Jacobson’s other roles, she has served as deputy executive secretary and senior director for administration at the National Security Council in Washington DC and as deputy ambassador at the US embassy, in Riga, Latvia.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and her Master’s from the School of Advanced International Studies, also at Johns Hopkins.

She is the recipient of multiple awards from the State Department, including the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award, two Presidential Rank Awards, and the Order for Peace, Democracy and Humanism “Ibrahim Rugova” (Kosovo).

With Jacobson’s arrival as chargé d’affaires ad interim, Megan Bouldin will resume duties as the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Dhaka.