Alina Romanowski

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Alina Romanowski

| image = Alina L. Romanowski at the Pentagon, USA on December 13, 2024 (cropped).jpg

| caption = Romanowski at the Pentagon on December 13, 2024

| office = United States Ambassador to Iraq

| president = Joe Biden

| term_start = June 2, 2022

| term_end = December 7, 2024https://x.com/USAmbIraq/status/1865440697878200540?t=nn3r0kxmpzZsUO_hetl9PQ&s=19

| predecessor = Matthew H. Tueller

| office1 = United States Ambassador to Kuwait

| president1 = Donald Trump
Joe Biden

| term_start1 = February 11, 2020

| term_end1 = April 15, 2022{{cite web | url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2022/04/20/a-more-complex-iraq-awaits-new-us-ambassador-alina-romanowski/ | title=A more complex Iraq awaits new US ambassador Alina Romanowski | date=20 April 2022}}

| predecessor1 = Lawrence R. Silverman

| successor1 = James Holtsnider
Chargé d'Affaires a.i.

| birth_name = Alina L. Romanowski

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|9|26}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| education = University of Chicago (BA, MA)

}}

Alina L. Romanowski (born September 26, 1955) is an American career diplomat who had served as the United States Ambassador to Iraq from June 2022 to December 2024.{{Cite web |title=Biden nominees for ambassadors to Iraq, Yemen appear before Senate - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East |url=https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/biden-nominees-ambassadors-iraq-yemen-appear-senate |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.al-monitor.com |date=4 March 2022 |language=en}} She previously served as the United States Ambassador to Kuwait from February 2020 to April 2022.{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database |title=Donald Trump nominations list – New White House administration - Washington Post |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2020-01-07 |archive-date=2017-09-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904185325/https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/ |url-status=dead }}

Early life and education

Alina Romanowski is from Illinois. Her father Thomas A. Romanowski,{{Cite web |title=Thomas Romanowski Obituary (2010) |work= New York Times |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/thomas-romanowski-obituary?id=35141058 |access-date=2024-05-07 |via=Legacy.com}} was born in Warsaw, Poland and in 1946 immigrated to the U.S. He was a professor of high-energy physics. Her mother, Carmen M. Romanowski, emigrated from Canada and was a French language teacher.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/103119_Romanowski_Testimony.pdf|title=U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, Oct 31, 2019}} Alina Romanowski earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Chicago. She also attended Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Career

While she was a student at the University of Chicago, Romanowski interviewed on campus with the CIA and began a career in the U.S. government.{{Cite web|url=https://federalnewsnetwork.com/women-of-washington/2018/02/when-in-doubt-just-take-the-risk/|title=When in doubt, just take the risk|date=February 21, 2018|website=Federal News Network}}

Romanowski has spent four decades in U.S. public service roles, focused in large part in Near East and South Asia. She worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as an intelligence analyst on the Near East and South Asia region for ten years. She served as the director of the NESA Office and country director for Israel. Romanowski served as founding Director of the Near East-South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, as well as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

In 2003, she joined the State Department to establish the Middle East Partnership Initiative Office and serve as its first director. She also served in two deputy assistant secretary positions in the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs and as acting deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

From 2011 to 2015, Romanowski served at USAID as deputy assistant administrator for the Middle East Bureau. In March 2015 she became the coordinator for U.S. assistance to Europe and Eurasia in the State Department's Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, overseeing all U.S. federal assistance to thirty countries in Europe and Eurasia, including Central Asia.

Romanowski became principal deputy coordinator for Counterterrorism in 2017, after serving in an acting role.

=Ambassador to Kuwait=

File:210909-D-TT977-0066 (51440475074).jpg in September 2021]]

On July 25, 2019, President Donald Trump nominated Romanowski to serve as the ambassador to Kuwait.{{cite web |title=President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Individuals to Key Administration Posts |url=https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-individuals-key-administration-posts-12/ |website=The White House |access-date=26 March 2022}} Hearings were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the nomination on October 31, 2019. The committee favorably reported her nomination to the Senate floor on November 20, 2019. Romanowski was confirmed by the Senate via voice vote on December 19, 2019.{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/nomination/116th-congress/1038 |title=PN1038 — Alina L. Romanowski — Department of State |website=U.S. Congress |date=December 19, 2019 |accessdate=2020-02-16}} Romanowski presented her credentials to Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at Bayan Palace in Kuwait City on February 11, 2020.{{cite news |url=https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticlePrintPage.aspx?id=2859797&language=en |title=Kuwait Amir's audiences |website=Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) |accessdate=2020-02-16}}

=Ambassador to Iraq=

On December 8, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Romanowski to be the ambassador to Iraq.{{cite web |title=President Biden Announces Key Nominees |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/08/president-biden-announces-key-nominees/ |website=The White House |date=8 December 2021 |access-date=26 March 2022}} Hearings on her nomination were held before the Foreign Relations Committee on March 3, 2022. The committee favorably reported her nomination to the Senate floor on March 23, 2022. The entire Senate confirmed Romanowski by voice vote on March 24, 2022.{{cite web |title=PN1465 — Alina L. Romanowski — Department of State 117th Congress (2021-2022) |url=https://www.congress.gov/nomination/117th-congress/1465 |website=US Congress | date=24 March 2022 |access-date=26 March 2022}} She presented her credentials to President Barham Salih on June 2, 2022.{{cite web |url=https://iq.usembassy.gov/ambassador-romanowski-presented-credentials-to-serve-as-u-s-ambassador-to-iraq/ |title=Ambassador Romanowski Presented Credentials to Serve as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq |date=June 2, 2022 |publisher=United States Department of State |access-date=June 6, 2022}}

Personal life

Romanowski speaks French, Arabic and Hebrew.{{Cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/bureau/239787.htm|title=Romanowski, Alina L.|website=U.S. Department of State}}