Julie M. Stufft was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan on October 7, 2025. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Julie most recently served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council. In April 2025, she was appointed as Chairman of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel. Previously, she was the Senior Bureau Official and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, and Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassies in Moldova and in Djibouti. She also served in our missions in Russia, Ethiopia, and Poland, and in the State Department Operations Center.

In 2023, she received the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award, the highest award granted to a civilian federal employee. She is an International Women’s Forum Leadership Fellow, and a State Fellow to Seminar XXI, MIT’s Center for International Studies. She is the recipient of seven Superior Honor Awards and the American Foreign Service Association’s Award for Constructive Dissent by a Senior Officer. She was inducted in 2026 as a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Julie is originally from Ohio, and holds degrees from Case Western Reserve University and Duke University. She speaks Russian, Romanian, French and Polish.