Ambassador Erica Barks-Ruggles was appointed on February 23, 2022 as the United States Representative to the 2022 Conferences of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL). She served from January 20 – December 22, 2021 as Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO) at the U.S. Department of State, leading all U.S. policy and relations with the UN and multi-lateral organizations. Prior to joining the IO Bureau, Ambassador Barks-Ruggles was a Senior Diplomatic Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2020, and before that was the Acting Chancellor of the College of International Strategic Affairs (CISA) at the National Defense University (NDU). From January 2015- March 2018, she served as the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Rwanda. She previously served as the U.S. Consul General in Cape Town, South Africa. From January 2009-July 2011, Amb. Barks-Ruggles served as the Deputy to the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, leading the Washington office and serving on the National Security Council’s Deputies Committee. From 2004-2008 she was the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor overseeing international human rights, and democracy programming in the Middle East and South and Central Asia. From 1996-1999 she was a Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House, where she led the successful effort to pass the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. She has also been posted to India and Norway and served on the staffs of three Secretaries of State. She speaks and reads French and Norwegian.