John Mark Pommersheim was appointed as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan on January 7, 2019, according to the U.,S. Embassy in Dushanbe.
Ambassador Pommersheim is expected to arrive to Tajikistan soon.
John Mark Pommersheim was nominated by President Trump on September 12, 2018 to be the U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan.
Mr. Pommersheim, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, has served as an American diplomat since 1990. In his Foreign Service career, Mr. Pommersheim has served in a wide array of positions in Washington DC, and worked in Embassy political sections in Japan, China, Belarus, and Germany. He served also as U.S. Consul General in Vladivostok, Russia.
Most recently, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission (2015-2018) at the U.S. Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan. Prior to Kazakhstan, he served as Director of the Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs where he was responsible for managing the full spectrum of U.S. relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
Mr. Pommersheim is the recipient of 10 Department of State performance awards, including a citation by Department of State Director General for Reporting and Analysis. Mr. Pommersheim speaks Russian, German, Japanese, and Chinese.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Pommersheim reportedly worked for CNN in Moscow and worked with the U.S. Information Agency in Georgia and Uzbekistan on an exhibition of information technology. Pommersheim is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and earned a B.A. from Bucknell University, M.A. from Columbia University, and studied at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute on a Department of Defense scholarship. He is married with three sons.
