Biographies

Ambassador Robert Blake

Term of Appointment: September 2006 to present

Ambassador Robert O, Blake, Jr., presented his credential as Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives on September 9, 2006. Ambassador Blake is a career diplomat, having entered the Foreign Service in 1985. He has served at the American Embassies in Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. He also has held a number of positions at the State Department in Washington. Blake served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission in New Delhi, India from 2003 – 2006.
Ambassador Blake earned a B.A. from Harvard College in 1980 and an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1984. He is married to Sofia Blake. They have three daughters.

 

USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn

Term of Appointment: August 2006 to present

Rebecca W. Cohn was sworn in as Mission Director for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in August, 2006. Originally from Oakland California, Ms. Cohn has 25 years experience with USAID, and has previously served in Indonesia, Barbados, Jamaica, Brazil, and Washington, DC. Most recently, she was Chief of the Personnel Operations Division in the USAID Office of Human Resources.

Ms. Cohn holds Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Hawaii in International Health, Population and Family Planning, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California-Berkeley. She and her husband Steve have two sons, Benjamin, and Joshua.