Sandra Oudkirk officially began her tenure as the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Kyiv on July 8. The US diplomatic mission in Ukraine announced the appointment. According to the embassy, Oudkirk is a career diplomat and a member of the Senior Foreign Service. She has over three decades of experience representing US interests across various international postings.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Since 2024, she has worked within the US Department of Defense. Her roles included serving as the Deputy Director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and later as the Civilian Deputy and Foreign Policy Advisor for the US European Command. Who is Sandra Oudkirk? From 2021 to 2024, Oudkirk served as director of the American Institute in Taiwan. Her previous assignments in Washington within the State Department focused on the East Asian and Pacific regions, as well as energy, economic, and business affairs. Her portfolio included strategic competition, energy security, counter-threat finance, and the implementation of economic sanctions. She also served as a Senior Watch Officer at the State Department Operations Center. Her overseas diplomatic assignments include postings in Taipei, Dublin, Ankara, Kingston, Istanbul, and Beijing. A native of Tampa, Florida, Oudkirk graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She is married to fellow diplomat Scott Oudkirk, has three children, and speaks Mandarin Chinese and Turkish.