Ambassador (ret.) Barbara K. Bodine is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Ambassador Bodine served for over 30 years as a senior career Foreign Service Officer at the Department of State, where she focused on the Arabian Peninsula. She began her work on the region as a Country Officer for the two Yemens, while her last overseas post was as Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen. In between, she served in Iraq twice, in Kuwait as deputy chief of mission, and as the Deputy Director of the Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and the Director of East African Affairs. Since leaving government service, she has taught and directed programs at the Harvard Kennedy School, MIT, and Princeton University. Raised in California, she is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.