John Dinkelman assumed his duties as Chargé d’Affaires in November 2011 after having arrived in The Bahamas as Deputy Chief of Mission in August 2011. Mr. Dinkelman’s overseas assignments with the United States Foreign Service have been: to Belgrade, Yugoslavia from 1989 – 1991 as vice consul; to London, England from 1991 – 1993 as staff assistant; to Majuro, Marshall Islands from 1993 – 1995 as regional management officer for Micronesia; to The Hague, Holland from 1995 – 1999 as supervisory general services officer; to Ankara, Turkey from 2000 – 2001 as human resources officer; and to Nogales, Mexico from 2007 to 2011 as Principal Officer. From 2001 – 2007, Mr. Dinkelman was assigned to the Orientation Division at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia where he was responsible for the initial training all of incoming Foreign Service Officers. During his tenure, he trained 2,570 officers – over 40% of the American diplomatic corps – for which he was awarded the State Department’s 2006 Arnold L. Raphel Memorial Award.
An ‘army brat,’ Mr. Dinkelman was raised in many different places – none of which he can claim as his hometown. His heart is tugged, however, toward Provo, Utah, where he graduated with degrees in Business and Spanish from Brigham Young University. Although the State Department’s Language Testing Unit maintains that Mr. Dinkelman speaks Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Dutch, and Turkish, he knows better than to claim proficiency in anything but English. Prior to joining the Department of State, John worked for the Communications Systems Division of UNISYS in Salt Lake City.
