Melvyn Levitsky

Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky, who retired in August 1998 as a Career Minister in the U. S. Foreign Service and one of the country’s most senior diplomats, is Professor of International policy and Practice at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. From 1998-2006 he was Professor of International Relations and Public Administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. During his 35-year career as a U.S. diplomat, Ambassador Levitsky was Ambassador to Brazil from 1994-98 and before that held such senior positions as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, Executive Secretary of the State Department, Ambassador to Bulgaria, Deputy Director of the Voice of America, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights.

Ambassador Levitsky also served as Director of the State Department’s Office of UN Political Affairs and as Officer-in Charge of U.S.-Soviet Bilateral Relations. Earlier in his career he was political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and a consul at U.S. Consulates in Belem, Brazil and Frankfurt, Germany.

Ambassador Levitsky speaks Russian, German and Portuguese. He received the Department’s Meritorious Honor Award in 1968 and a Superior Honor Award in 1975. Ambassador Levitsky was the recipient of the Department’s Senior Foreign Service Performance Award in 1984, 1987, and 1988 and the Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 1986 and 1990. On his retirement, he received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award.