A career diplomat, Heide B. Fulton was appointed by US President Joe Biden in May 2022 and held her confirmation hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July of the same year. In the coming weeks she will be sworn in and will travel to Uruguay. Once in the country, she will present her credentials to the Uruguayan government to be officially accredited as head of the US diplomatic mission in the country.
Prior to this position, Fulton was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Programs at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. She was also Director of the Bureau of Mexican Affairs. A public diplomacy officer, Heide led the United States Embassy in Honduras as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires from 2016 to 2019. Since joining the United States Information Agency in 1998, Heide has served abroad as Director of Anti-Narcotics at the International Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan; Counselor for Public Affairs in Quito; Public Affairs Officer in Phnom Penh; and Vice Consul and Assistant for Cultural Affairs in Manila. Her charges are in the Washington Main Office of the Press, Pearson Fellow in the Office of Senator Robert Menendez, Press Advisor in the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Fulton served on active duty as a Quartermaster in the United States Army, with postings in Virginia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy. Between 2005 and 2006 he returned to active duty as a Civil Affairs Officer to deploy to Iraq, where he served as the Senior Multinational Force Iraq Liaison Officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq in Baghdad. He retired from the US Army Reserve in June 2020 after 28 years of service.
Born in Buffalo, New York, she graduated from Boston College in 1992 and earned a Master’s in International Relations from Troy State University in 1996 while stationed in Germany with the US Army. She speaks Spanish and has knowledge of Khmer, Ukrainian and French. She likes to travel, ski, dive and is a certified personal trainer.
Karl Rios will continue to serve as Chargé d’Affaires until Ms. Fulton’s arrival.
