Prior to her appointment as USTR, Ambassador Schwab served as Deputy USTR with a portfolio overseeing U.S. trade relations with Europe and Eurasia, the Middle East, and the Americas.  In addition she is responsible for USTR operations involving the WTO and multilateral affairs; services and investment; intellectual property; industry, market access and telecommunications; and intergovernmental affairs and public liaison activities.  Since her arrival at USTR, Ambassador Schwab has been actively engaged in the development of U.S. strategy in the Doha Round multilateral trade negotiations, and successfully concluded bilateral free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Ambassador Schwab served as Dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy from 1995 through 2003.  Immediately before joining the Administration, she held the position of President and CEO of the University System of Maryland (USM) Foundation and USM Vice Chancellor for Advancement.  Schwab came to the University of Maryland from Motorola, Inc., where she served as Director of Corporate Business Development, and where she was engaged in strategic planning and negotiation on behalf of the company in China and elsewhere in Asia.  Prior to that appointment she was Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service during the Administration of George H.W. Bush. 

Schwab spent most of the 1980s as a trade policy specialist and then legislative director for Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), playing a major role in numerous U.S. trade policy initiatives, including landmark trade legislation that Congress enacted in 1984 and 1988.  Previously, Schwab served as a Trade Policy Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.  Her first job was as an agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 

Ambassador Schwab is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).  She previously served on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Board of Trustees of the Council for Excellence in Government and the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government Awards program.  She holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College, a Masters in Development Policy from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration and International Business from The George Washington University.

Ambassador Schwab has published articles and a book on U.S. trade policy and legislation (“Trade-Offs: Negotiating the Omnibus Trade Act,” Harvard Business School Press, 1994), as well as articles on U.S.–Japan trade relations, trade politics, and public policy education. 

In addition to the time she has spent working overseas, Ambassador Schwab is the product of a Foreign Service family and grew up in Africa, Europe and Asia.  She currently resides in Annapolis, Maryland.