Ambassador Barbara A. Leaf

In 2021, Ambassador Leaf joined the Biden administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa, where she led interagency policy coordination and developed recommendations to the U.S. national security leadership and the President on all regional issues. She supported the President in his engagements with the region’s leaders on matters ranging from ending the 2011 Israel-Hamas conflict, countering Iran’s destabilizing regional activities, and deepening economic and security cooperation with key Gulf partners.

From 2018 to 2021, as the Ruth and Sid Lapidus Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ambassador Leaf directed the Beth and David Gedud Program on Arab Politics. She spoke and wrote regularly on Iraq, Iran, and Gulf Politics, as well as on broader U.S. foreign and national security policy.

Ambassador Leaf served from 2014-2018 as U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates where she oversaw more than 900 personnel and 43 federal agencies and offices in a bilateral diplomatic mission focused on expanding bilateral trade and economic ties, defense and security affairs, counterterrorism, counterproliferation, and law enforcement cooperation. Ambassador Leaf provided counsel to a community of 1,500 U.S. firms working in the full spectrum of commercial sectors, from health care, aerospace, defense, security solutions, food products, conventional and green energy, to space. She led a vigorous, integrated U.S. government effort across the Emirates to promote U.S. goods and services, trouble-shoot regulatory and IPR issues, and foster an ever-improving business climate through personal engagement with key U.S. and UAE officials and entities. Prior to her assignment as Chief of Mission, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Arabian Peninsula from 2013-2014, overseeing 10 diplomatic posts in the Gulf states and Yemen through which she led robust commercial and diplomatic advocacy with Gulf partners on the issues that matter most to U.S. business – market access, ease of doing business, accessible conflict resolution mechanisms and IPR.

As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq from 2011-2013, Ambassador Leaf oversaw the transformation of U.S. Mission Iraq to a civilian-led enterprise. Directing a 65-member policy office, she developed policies on counterterrorism and defense cooperation, law enforcement, advocated for U.S. business access to both traditional (oil and gas, electricity, infrastructure) and emerging sector opportunities. Leaving an assignment as Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Ambassador Leaf directed the 100-member U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team, a stabilization mission in the strategic province of Basrah, Iraq from 2010-2011. There she provided support and counsel to U.S. energy and infrastructure firms as they navigated the complex security and political environment of southern Iraq.

Ambassador Leaf became the first Director of the Department of State’s Office of Iranian Affairs in 2006, formulating policies to content with threats emanating from Iran’s nuclear and regional activities, as well as establishing an overseas network of Iran specialists and Farsi speakers to develop expertise lost to the U.S. government since the 1980 break in diplomatic relations with Tehran. She led a broad U.S. push to expand contacts with the Iranian people through sports and cultural exchanges that provided Washington with insight into a country central to U.S. national security concerns.

A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Leaf received the Distinguished Honor Award by Secretary Blinken, as well as numerous Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards throughout her career.