Biden Taps @Penn’s Amy Gutmann to be the Next U.S. Ambassador to Germany

July 29, 2021 By in EUR|Europe, Nominations, Officially In, Political Appointees, U.S. Missions Tags: , ,
President Biden announced his intent to nominate University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Germany. The WH released the following brief bio:

Amy Gutmann, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Germany

Amy Gutmann is the eighth President of the University of Pennsylvania, serving since 2004.  She is also the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, and a Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.  Her focus on global engagement fueled the creation of Penn’s Perry World House on campus, Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing, and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.  Previously, at Princeton University, Gutmann was Provost, Dean of the Faculty, Founding Director of The University Center for Human Values, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics, and Director of the Program in Ethics and Public Affairs.  She also worked at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and at the University of Maryland.  Gutmann is an award-winning author and editor of 17 books, many centered on understanding and defending constitutional democracy and human rights. The daughter of a German Jewish refugee, and first in her family to graduate college, she earned a B.A. at Harvard-Radcliffe College, an M.S. at the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. at Harvard.  She was named by Fortune in 2018 as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.”

If confirmed, Ms. Gutmann would succeed Richard Grenell who served from May 2018 – June 2020.  She would also be the first female American ambassador to Berlin. According to AFSA’s tracking, 12 of 17 ambassadors appointed to Germany since 1960 or 70.6% were non-career appointees.

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