Richard E. Hoagland was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan on September 10, 2008.

Ambassador Hoagland previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan 2003-2006, and recently served as Charge d'affaires to Turkmenistan July 2007-July 2008. Prior to that Ambassador Hoagland was Director of the Office of Caucasus and Central Asian Affairs in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Department of State, June 2001-July 2003. In that position, he wrote and negotiated four of the key bilateral documents defining the Central Asian states’ enhanced relationship with the United States. After September 11, 2001, he initiated regular U.S.-Russia consultations in response to the mandate by Presidents Bush and Putin that the two governments work together to increase their collaboration and transparency in Central Asia and the Caucasus. In July 2002, this consultative group became part of the ongoing U.S.-Russia Counterterrorism Working Group.

A member of the Senior Foreign Service (Minister-Counselor), Ambassador Hoagland’s earliers assignments included Director of the Office of Public Diplomacy in the South Asia Bureau of the State Department (1999-2001) where his additional portfolio was Special Adviser to the National Security Council for public diplomacy on Afghanistan. His foreign assignments have included Russia (where he was Press Spokesman for the U.S. Embassy), Uzbekistan, and Pakistan twice -- the first time (1986-1989) working with the Afghan Resistance during the Soviet-Afghan War. He also served in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research where he was the lead analyst for Afghanistan (1989-1991). Subsequently, because of his Afghanistan expertise, he was U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Afghanistan (1991-1992). During the course of his career, he has received multiple State Department Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards, as well as Presidential Performance Awards.

Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Ambassador Hoagland completed his graduate degrees at the University of Virginia and earned a certificate in French from the University of Grenoble, France. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1985, Ambassador Hoagland taught English as a foreign language in the then-Zaire (1974-1976) and African literature at the University of Virginia's Carter-Woodson Institute of African and Afro-American Studies.