Judith Ravin takes over as US Consul-General in Chennai

Senior diplomat Judith Ravin on Sunday assumed charge as Consul General of the United States of America here. The US Consulate here covers the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep.

Ravin, who succeeded Robert Burgess, was the Public Affairs Counselor at the US Embassy in Lima, Peru, before coming to Chennai. Prior to that, she worked in Washington, D.C., as the International Relations Officer General in the Office of the Haiti Special Coordinator.

“It is my great privilege to represent the United States in South India, especially at this historically difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic. I look forward to advancing the shared goals of the United States and India in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and the three Union Territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry,” she said in a statement.

Ravin’s other diplomatic posts include Islamabad, Pakistan; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Khartoum, Sudan; Yaoundé, Cameroon; and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The US Consulate said Ravin did her undergraduate work at universities in France and Spain in addition to the United States.

She holds a master’s degree in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University and speaks fluent Spanish and French. Before joining the US Department of State in 2003, Ravin worked for several years in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as an editor, translator, and journalist.

She is also a co-author of Beyond Our Degrees of Separation: Washington Monsoons and Islamabad Blues (2017) and the author of Ballet in the Cane Fields: Vignettes from a Dominican Wanderlogue (2014).