REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Republic of Cyprus
CANDIDATE: Julie D. Fisher
Julie D. Fisher, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as the U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus based in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2020, she was confirmed as the first U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus since 2008. Fisher previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Europe and the European Union in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Before that, she was the Deputy Permanent Representative of the U.S. Mission to NATO. Earlier, she was the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. Prior to that, Fisher served as the Director of the State Department’s Operations Center. Other assignments include a detail to NATO’s international staff as Deputy Director of the Private Office and assignments at U.S. embassies in Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia, as well as tours at the National Security Council, the Bureaus for European and Eurasian Affairs and Near Eastern Affairs, and the Secretary of State’s Executive Secretariat Staff. Fisher’s extensive experience working on European and NATO issues and her management experience and demonstrated ability to lead large interagency teams make her a well-qualified candidate to be the U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus.
Fisher has received numerous performance awards, including two Senior Foreign Service Performance Awards and six Superior Honor awards. Fisher earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She speaks Russian and French.