Margaret Scobey
Margaret Scobey, a career Foreign Service officer at the rank of Minister-Counselor, was nominated on January 23, 2008 to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt and confirmed by the Senate on March 14.
Ms. Scobey was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to Syria in December 2003 and was recalled for consultations in February 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. In addition to her service in Syria, Ms. Scobey served as Political Counselor in Baghdad, 2006-2007 and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from September 2001 through November 2003. She has also served as Director of Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Department of State, Deputy Chief of Mission in Sanaa, Yemen, as well as earlier assignments in Jerusalem, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Peru.
In the Department, Ms. Scobey has been staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Near East and South Asian Affairs, watch officer in the Operations Center, political-military officer in the Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs, and deputy director of the Secretariat Staff.
Ms. Scobey was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated with a degree in History from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she also received her Master’s degree. She pursued doctoral studies in History at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor