Former U.S. Ambassadors

Heather M. Hodges

Biography

Ambassador Heather M. Hodges

Heather Hodges, who is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, has a B.A. in Spanish from the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota, and an M.A. from New York University. She lived and worked in Madrid, Spain, throughout the 1970s.

Ms. Hodges joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and was assigned to Caracas, Venezuela, where she was Chief of the Non-Immigrant Visa Section. From 1983 to 1985, she served in Guatemala as Deputy Chief of the Consular Section. In 1985, she returned to Washington to serve as Peru Desk Officer. In 1987, Ms. Hodges received a Pearson Fellowship to work in the U.S. Congress, where she was counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs. In January 1989, she became Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Bilbao, Spain. In 1991, she returned to Washington to serve as Deputy Director of the Office of Cuban Affairs.

In 1993, Ms. Hodges was assigned to Managua, Nicaragua, as Deputy Chief of Mission. A year later she was promoted into the Senior Foreign Service.

From August 1996 to June 1997, Ms. Hodges participated in the Department of State's Senior Seminar. She then served as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Lima, Peru, from July 1997 to May 2000.

In June 2000, Ms. Hodges returned to Spain to serve as Deputy Chief of Mission in Madrid until July 2003. She was promoted to the rank of minister counselor in October 2000. Before she left Spain, the Spanish government awarded Ms. Hodges the Spanish decoration of “Isabel la Catolica - Encomienda de Numero” for her contributions to Spanish-U.S. relations.

Ms. Hodges was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Moldova on September 12, 2003 and presented her credentials to the President of the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin on October 10, 2003.