Erica Barks Ruggles

Ambassador Erica Barks Ruggles is currently the Obenshain Family Visitor and Diplomat in Residence at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, and previously was the Magro Family Distinguished Visitor in International Affairs (2024-25). She serves on the boards of several non-governmental organizations working on climate change and reproductive health issues.

Ambassador Barks Ruggles served for over 32 years in senior leadership and diplomatic positions at the U.S. Department of State. Ambassador Barks-Ruggles was the Head of Mission at U.S. UNESCO in Paris in 2023-24, and previously the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (IO), overseeing all budgets, policies, and relationships with the United Nations. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda 2015-2018, and as Consul General in Cape Town, South Africa (2011-2014).

Ambassador Barks Ruggles has been a Senior Diplomatic Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and was the Acting Chancellor of the College of International Strategic Affairs (CISA) at the National Defense University in 2018-2020.  She has held senior policy positions in Washington including as the Deputy to the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, serving on the sub-Cabinet Deputies Committee of the National Security Council, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House, where she led the successful effort to pass the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.

Ambassador Barks Ruggles has also been posted to France, India and Norway and served on the staffs of three Secretaries of State. She was a Visiting Fellow at The Brookings Institution and an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a published author of articles on the economic impact of HIV/AIDS as well as combatting international epidemics.