Chiefs of Protocol
NOTE TO READERS
Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.
Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
All Chiefs of the Division of Protocol/Conferences/International Conferences were designated, not commissioned. Since 1946, the President has commissioned the head of the Department of State’s protocol staff as the “Chief of Protocol for the White House.” In 1916, the Department of State appointed the first U.S. official to be concerned on a full-time basis with protocol, which is the diplomatic procedure governed by law or international custom and practice. The Department first established a Division of Protocol on Feb 4, 1928. All incumbents since 1961 have held the rank of Ambassador. The Protocol Office has been part of the Office of the Secretary of State since July 12, 1965. The Chief of Protocol serves as the protocol officer for the U.S. Government and advises the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and other high-ranking officials on this subject.
- James Clement Dunn (1928–1930)
- Warren Delano Robbins (1931–1933)
- James Clement Dunn (1933–1935)
- George Thomas Summerlin (1938)
- Stanley Woodward (1944)
- Stanley Woodward (1946–1950)
- John Farr Simmons (1950–1957)
- Wiley Thomas Buchanan Jr. (1957–1961)
- Angier Biddle Duke (1961–1965)
- Lloyd Nelson Hand (1965–1966)
- James Wadsworth Symington (1966–1968)
- Angier Biddle Duke (1968)
- Tyler Abell (1968–1969)
- Emil Mosbacher Jr. (1969–1972)
- Marion Hartzog Smoak (1974)
- Henry Edward Catto Jr. (1974–1976)
- Shirley Jane Temple Black (1976–1977)
- Evan Samuel Dobelle (1977–1978)
- Edith Huntington Jones Dobelle (1978–1979)
- Abelardo Lopez Valdez (1979–1981)
- Leonore Annenberg (1981–1982)
- Selwa Roosevelt (1982–1989)
- Joseph Verner Reed Jr. (1989–1991)
- John Giffen Weinmann (1991–1993)
- Mary (Molly) Millonzi Raiser (1993–1997)
- Mary Mel French (1997–2001)
- Donald Burnham Ensenat (2001–2007)
- Nancy Goodman Brinker (2007–2009)
- Capricia Penavic Marshall (2009–2013)
- Peter A. Selfridge (2014–2016)
- Sean P. Lawler (2017)