Sandra Oudkirk assumed duties as associate director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in September 2024. As a diplomat in residence, she contributes a U.S. State Department perspective to the Marshall Center’s mission to educate, engage, and empower security partners and leaders as they address regional, transnational, and global challenges. 

Oudkirk is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who has spent more than 30 years representing U.S. interests across the globe in roles of increasing responsibility. She most recently served as the director of the American Institute in Taiwan from 2021 to 2024, where she led a multiagency team responsible for managing the unofficial relationship with Taiwan with the dual goals of advancing global prosperity and preserving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. 

The career diplomat has served in Washington, D.C., in the bureaus of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Energy Resources, and Economic and Business Affairs on issues related to great power competition, energy security, threat finance, and economic sanctions. From 2019 to 2021, she held dual roles as the U.S. senior official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and deputy assistant secretary of state for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. Earlier in her career, she also served as a senior watch officer in the State Department's Operations Center.

Her previous overseas service includes consular assignments at the American Institute in Taiwan in Taipei and in Dublin. Additional postings include service as an economic officer in Ankara, head of the counter-narcotics section in Kingston, deputy principal officer in Istanbul, and economic counselor in Beijing. 

Born and raised in Tampa, Fla., Oudkirk is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In 2009 to 2010, she was a fellow in Seminar XXI at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and Turkish.