Robert Gilchrist

July 22, 2012

Robert Gilchrist (Photo: U.S. Embassy)

Robert Gilchrist arrived in Tallinn as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy on August 17, 2010. A 22 year veteran of the U.S. Career Foreign Service, he has served numerous postings in Washington and abroad including Director of Nordic and Baltic Affairs in the U.S. Department of State (2007-2009); Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq (2006-7); Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania (2003-2006); Special Assistant to Deputy Secretaries of State Richard Armitage and Strobe Talbott (2000-2002), with responsibility for the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and Africa; Desk Officer for Haiti (1998-2000); Watch Officer in the State Department Operations Center (1995-1996); Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela (1993-1995); and Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in London (1990-1992). Outside of the State Department he has served on secondment as a Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. Congressman William Delahunt of Massachusetts (2002-2003); and as an International Observer at the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Desert, Egypt (1996-7).

A native of Florida, he received an MA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and a BA in Politics from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has received multiple Superior Honor Awards, Meritorious Honor Awards, and other notable recognitions throughout his State Department career.