Stephen A. Seche became ambassador to Yemen in August 2007. He earned his B.A. in journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1974, and worked four years as a journalist before entering the Foreign Service in 1978. He spent the first seven years of his career in public diplomacy positions in Guatemala, Peru, and Bolivia. Other overseas assignments have included four years (1989-1993) as Information Officer at the US Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, and four years (1993-1997) as Press Attaché at the Embassy in New Delhi, India. Following his service in India, he returned to Washington for the first of two years of Arabic language training, completing the program at the Foreign Service Institute’s Field School in Tunis. From 1999-2002, he was Counselor for Public Affairs and Director of the American Cultural Center in Damascus, Syria. Seche returned to Damascus in 2004 as Deputy of Chief of Mission. Following the February 2005 departure of the Ambassador in the wake of the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Seche served as Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Damascus until August 2006. During the 2006-2007 academic year, Seche was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southern California, where he taught in the recently established master’s degree program in public diplomacy. He speaks Spanish, French and Arabic.