Marta Youth joined the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) as Deputy Assistant Secretary in November 2020. Marta assumed the role of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in April 2022 and has responsibility for overseeing the Office of the Executive Director, the Office of International Migration, and the Office of Assistance for Western Hemisphere.
Ms. Youth was previously the Director of Central American Affairs in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Prior assignments include Director of the Office of Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas in PRM from 2017 to 2019; Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Managua, Nicaragua from 2014 to 2017; and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada from 2011 to 2014. She also worked at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador as Press Attaché from 2008 to 2011. Ms. Youth also served overseas at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain as a Trade Officer from 2000 to 2004 and at the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India as a Consular Officer from 1992 to 1994.
During her State Department career additional Washington, DC assignments included Country Assistance Coordinator for Russia and Moldova, South Africa Desk Officer, and Portugal, Malta, and Vatican City Desk Officer. She has also been assigned twice to the State Department’s Economic and Business Affairs Bureau.
Ms. Youth has been a Foreign Service Officer for more than 25 years and is a member of the Senior Foreign Service. She has a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from St. Peter’s University in New Jersey, and pursued graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy and Washington, DC.