Professional Affiliation

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Press and Public Diplomacy; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq, Department of State

Expert Bio

Jennifer Gavito is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Press and Public Diplomacy and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq. Prior to taking on that role she served as the Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London. From 2015-2018, she was the U.S. Consul General in Munich, Germany, where she was the senior U.S. government representative to Bavaria. She previously served as Chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem from 2012-2015 and as the Foreign Affairs Policy Advisor to the U.S. Africa Command’s Director for Plans, Policies, and Programs (J5) from 2011-2012.  Ms. Gavito has spent the majority of her Foreign Service career working in and on the Middle East. Previous assignments have included: Deputy Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai; Director for Syria and Lebanon on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House; Deputy Director of the Maghreb Affairs Office in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs; Libya Desk Officer; and as head of the Economic/Commercial section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Early assignments were at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua and at the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt, Germany. Before joining the State Department in 1998, she worked at the U.S. Department of Treasury as an Economic Analyst. Ms. Gavito attended American University in Washington, D.C. She is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, but now calls Colorado home. She is married and has two sons.