New US ambassador to Bulgaria sworn in at State Department
Herro Mustafa, the United States ambassador-designate to Bulgaria, was sworn in at a ceremony at the State Department in Washington DC on October 15.
The ceremony was attended by a number of Mustafa’s predecessors, including her immediate predecessor Eric Rubin, as well as US diplomats Roderick W Moore, Marcie Ries, and James Warlick, and Bulgarian ambassador to the US Tihomir Stoytchev.
Before her nomination to become US ambassador in Sofia, Mustafa was deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Lisbon, where she began her foreign diplomatic service in July 2016.
Previously, she was the Political Minister Counselor at Embassy New Delhi. Prior to working in India, Mustafa was an adviser to US Vice President Joe Biden from 2009-2011, providing counsel on issues related to the Middle East and South and Central Asia.
As part of her Foreign Service career, Mustafa was Deputy Director of the Afghanistan Office, acting Chief-of-Staff for Under Secretary for Political Affairs William Burns, and an Advisor on the Middle East for former Under Secretary Nicholas Burns, where she was closely involved in the P5+1 talks on Iran.
Mustafa was Director for Iran, Israeli-Palestinian Affairs, and Jordan at the National Security Council from 2005-2006 and Director for Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004-2005. Before that, she was the lead US Civilian Coordinator in Mosul, Iraq; a Consular Officer in Beirut, Lebanon; and a Political Officer in Athens, Greece.
Mustafa grew up in Minot, North Dakota and speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Farsi, Greek, Hindi, and Portuguese. She has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and a Masters from Princeton University. She is married and has two young daughters.
