Sandra Oudkirk assumed duties as the Associate Director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in September 2024. As a Diplomat-in-Residence, Sandra contributes a 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. 

Sandra is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who has spent over 30 years representing U.S. interests across the globe in roles of increasing scope and responsibility. She most recently served as the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2021-2024) where she led a multi-agency team responsible for managing the unofficial relationship with Taiwan with the twin goals of advancing global prosperity while preserving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. 

Sandra has served in Washington in the bureaus of East Asian & Pacific Affairs, Energy Resources, and Economic & Business Affairs on issues related to great power competition, energy security, threat finance, and economic sanctions. She was dual-hatted as the U.S. Senior Official for APEC while working as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands from 2019-2021. Earlier in her career she also served as a Senior Watch Officer in the Operations Center.

Her previous overseas service includes consular assignments at AIT/Taipei and in Dublin as well as work as an economic officer in Ankara, head of the counter-narcotics section in Kingston, Deputy Principal Officer in Istanbul, and economic counselor in Beijing. 

Ms. Oudkirk was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, and is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In 2009-10 she was a fellow in Seminar XXI of the Center for International Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and Turkish.