Assistant Secretaries of State for Administration

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Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.

Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last updated March 14, 2024.

The Department of State created the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Administration during a general reorganization in December 1944, after Congress authorized an increase in the number of Assistant Secretaries in the Department from four to six (Dec 8, 1944; P.L. 78-472; 58 Stat. 798). The reorganization was the first to designate substantive designations for specific Assistant Secretary positions. The title for this position has varied over the years. Assistant Secretaries for Administration have supervised a variety of functions ranging from budget and personnel matters to foreign buildings and record keeping. Several of these functions, such as accounting and diplomatic security have become the responsibility of newly created bureaus.

Julius Cecil Holmes (1945)
Frank McCarthy (1945)
Donald Stuart Russell (1945–1947)
John Emil Peurifoy (1947–1950)
Carlisle Hubbard Humelsine (1950–1953)
Edward Thompson Wailes (1953–1954)
Isaac White Carpenter Jr. (1954–1955)
Loy Wesley Henderson (1955)
Isaac White Carpenter Jr. (1955–1957)
Walter Kenneth Scott (1958–1959)
Lane Dwinell (1959–1961)
William James Crockett (1961–1963)
Dwight Johnson Porter (1963–1965)
Francis Gerald Meyer (1969–1971)
Joseph Francis Donelan Jr. (1971–1973)
John Morgan Thomas (1973–1979)
Thomas M. Tracy (1979–1983)
Robert E. Lamb (1983–1985)
Donald J. Bouchard (1985–1987)
Sheldon J. Krys (1988–1989)
Arthur W. Fort (1989–1993)
Patrick Francis Kennedy (1993–2001)
William A. Eaton (2001–2005)
Rajkumar Chellaraj (2006–2009)
Joyce A. Barr (2011–2017)
Nicole R. Nason (2017)
Carrie B. Cabelka (2019)