Robert E. Whitehead, the newly assigned Chargé d’Affaires in Khartoum, is a career Foreign Service Officer who entered the United States Department of State Foreign Service in 1983. He has served at nine overseas posts, most recently as the first Consul General in Juba, in 2006, and as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires to Khartoum, from 2004-2005. Prior to his recent assignment to Khartoum, he served as a Senior Inspector in the Office of the State Department Inspector General and as Director of the Office of Africa Analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). He is a member of the Senior Foreign Service and has received the Department’s Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards. His foreign languages are French, Romanian and some Arabic.
Mr. Whitehead’s previous assignments were as a Political Officer in Georgetown (Guyana, 1983), as Political/Economic Officer in Kinshasa (Zaire, 1985), as Political and Press Officer in Belize City (Belize, 1987), as Desk Officer for Francophone West Africa (Washington, 1989-1991), as Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangui (Central African Republic, 1991), as Chargé d’Affaires in Kigali (Rwanda, 1994), as Political Counselor in Bucharest (Romania, 1995), and Deputy Chief of Mission in Lusaka (Zambia, 1998) and Harare (Zimbabwe, 2001).
Mr. Whitehead was born in Indiana. He obtained his M.A. in English Literature and linguistics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he was a graduate fellow. From 1976 to 1980, he was a volunteer and a Fulbright lecturer at the National University of Zaire in English and American History. It was there that he met his wife, the former Agathe Mukabutera, of Cyangugu, Rwanda. They are the parents of an adult son currently serving in the United States Air Force. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Whitehead worked as a Professor of language and literature at Northern Illinois University.
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