Paul Poletes is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.  Since joining the Foreign Service in 1998, Paul has completed assignments in Athens, Dhaka, Bishkek, Tirana, Ashgabat, Riga, and Washington, DC.

After growing up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Paul studied political science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  Paul also has master’s degrees in international affairs and strategic studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and from the National Defense University College of International Security Affairs.

Paul speaks Russian, Uzbek, Latvian, Albanian, and Greek.  Paul is married to Katerina Poletes, a civil servant with the Department of State.  They have two amazing children: Aleksandra, a college student in the United States; and Anton, a high school student in Tashkent.  They also have a less amazing but still remarkable cat, Barsik.  Paul enjoys reading, travelling, cooking, and riding his bicycle, preferably up steep hills.