Ambassador Philip T. Reeker has led the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs since March 2019. Prior to taking up duties in Washington, from 2017, he was Civilian Deputy and Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. European Command, in Stuttgart, Germany. He served as the United States Consul General in Milan, covering northern Italy, (2014-2017), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs focused on the Balkans, Central Europe, and Holocaust Issues (2011-2013).
He was U.S. Ambassador to North Macedonia from 2008 to 2011, and Deputy State Department Spokesman/Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, under Secretaries of State Albright and Powell (2000-2004). Previous assignments also include: Minister Counselor for Public Affairs under Ambassador Ryan Crocker at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq (2007-2008); Deputy Chief of Mission in Budapest (2004-2007); and Director of Press Relations at the State Department (1999-2000). Ambassador Reeker joined the Foreign Service in 1992, and served earlier tours in Budapest, Hungary, and Skopje, North Macedonia.
Philip Reeker received the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 2019, and the American Citizens Abroad Thomas Jefferson Award in 2017 for services to the community of Americans living abroad. Also in 2017, he was named a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his distinguished service in Italy. He was the 2013 Recipient of the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award for “his commitment to peace and the alleviation of human suffering caused by war or civil injustice” in the Balkans; the National Albanian American Council presented Ambassador Reeker with its “Hands of Hope Award” the same year. He received the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy in 2003, and several State Department Superior Honor Awards.
Ambassador Reeker is a graduate of Yale University (1986) and received an MBA from the Thunderbird School of International Management in Arizona (1991). Born in Pennsylvania, Ambassador Reeker grew up in several U.S. cities and spent his high school years in Brisbane, Australia. His foreign languages include: Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian, and German.
Dr. Anna Sauerbrey heads the opinion pages of Der Tagesspiegel and Tagesspiegel Causa, her newspaper’s online magazine for debate. She writes essays and comments for her own newspaper and a monthly column on German politics and culture for the New York Times. The development of Tagesspiegel Causa was supported by Google’s Digital News initiative.
She studied History, Political Science, and Journalism in Mainz and Bordeaux. From 2005 to 2009, she was a research assistant in the History Department at the University of Mainz. She worked as an intern at the F.A.Z. and ZDF, among others, and as a freelancer for the Mainzer Rhein-Zeitung for several years. In 2009, Ms. Sauerbrey completed a traineeship at Der Tagesspiegel and became a staff member of its opinion/editorial department. In 2013, she was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2018, she was awarded an Anna-Marie and Stephen M. Kellen Fellowship for Berlin-based journalists by the ACG to conduct research on the role religion plays in American politics.
