Ambassador Greta C. Holtz is a retired senior career U.S. diplomat with extensive experience in the broader Middle East region. Ambassador Holtz most recently served as the Senior U.S. Coordinator for Operations Allies Refuge (OAR) in Doha, Qatar, the largest humanitarian evacuation in history.

Ambassador Holtz served as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Qatar from 2020 to 2021 and was the U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman (2012 to 2015) and the Minister-Counselor for Provincial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (2009 – 2010), in charge of the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq.

Greta was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs from 2019 to 2020, and the Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commanding General of U.S. Special Operations Command from 2017-2019. She served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (2010 to 2012). Ambassador Holtz was the Vice Chancellor and Acting Chancellor at National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs from 2016-2017.

Additional postings include Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tunisia, Syria, and Turkey. At the State Department, Ambassador Holtz was the Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative, the State Department’s Coordinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and a Senior Watch Officer in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat’s Operations Center.

Ambassador Holtz received a B.S. in political science from Vanderbilt University, a M.A. in International Relations from the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, and a M.S. in National Security Studies from the National War College. Ambassador Holtz joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and speaks French, Arabic, and Turkish.

Ambassador Holtz is the recipient of numerous State Department awards, as well as awards from the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency. She is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.