Amb. Marc Grossman to Receive AFSA’s 2024 Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award

AFSA is honored to announce that Ambassador Marc Grossman will receive the association’s 2024 Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award in recognition of his commitment to American diplomacy and his important impact on the Foreign Service and the foreign affairs community.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Ambassador Grossman earned a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MSc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He began his career in the Foreign Service in 1976, serving his first tour at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan (1977-1979). He returned to Washington as a Staff Assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and then the Desk Officer for Jordan. Ambassador Grossman was next assigned to the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels and then became the Deputy Director of the Private Office of the NATO Secretary-General. Returning to Washington, Ambassador Grossman served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State (1986-1989).

Ambassador Grossman then became the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Türkiye (1989-1992), Executive Secretary of the State Department, and then U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye (1994-1997).

Ambassador Grossman was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs in 1997, where he played a crucial role in enlarging NATO and organizing NATO’s 50^th Anniversary Summit in Washington. As Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources from 2000 to 2001, Ambassador Grossman supported the creation of the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative and focused attention on new ways to train, assign, and retain personnel.

Ambassador Grossman was confirmed as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in 2001. He helped marshal the diplomatic response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, managed U.S. policy in the Balkans and Colombia, and contributed to a further enlargement of the NATO alliance. He became a Career Ambassador in 2004.

Ambassador Grossman joined The Cohen Group as a Vice Chair after his retirement in 2005. He was called back to the Department to serve as the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2011-2012). He received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award in 2005 and the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award in 2013. He was awarded the Director General’s Cup for the Foreign Service in 2006.

Ambassador Grossman has served as the Chairman of the Board of the Senior Living Foundation of the American Foreign Service since 2009.  Ambassador Grossman has also contributed to efforts to strengthen and reform U.S. diplomacy, including co-authoring the CSIS study The Embassy of the Future (2007), the Harvard University Belfer Center’s report A U.S. Diplomatic Service for the 21^st Century (2020) and Arizona State University’s Blueprints for a More Modern U.S. Diplomatic Service (2022), all supported by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation. With Ambassador John Limbert, he is the author of the novel Believers: Love and Death in Tehran.

Ambassador Grossman will be honored at AFSA's annual Awards Ceremony on October 16, 2024.