Ruben Harutunian

Ruben has served as Minister Counselor for Public Diplomacy at U.S. Embassy Cairo since August 2023.  Prior to that, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'affaires, a.i. of U.S. Embassy Minsk.  Earlier, he served as the State Department's Director of Press Operations and as a senior advisor at the Foreign Service Institute's Leadership Management School. 

Ruben joined the Foreign Service in 2007 and is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.  He has served as Public Affairs Officer in Algiers; Deputy Chief of the Political/Economic Section in Yerevan; Special Assistant to Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry; Political Officer and Staff Assistant to the Ambassador in Moscow; and Vice Consul and Deputy Spokesperson in Tel Aviv. 

Ruben is a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow and a Milken Scholar, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) with an MA in International Relations focusing on Conflict Management, and he has a BA in Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.  He speaks fluent Armenian, Russian, and French, with some Arabic and Hebrew. 

Ruben was born in Armenia, moved to the U.S. in 1991 at the age of nine, and grew up in the Washington, D.C. area.  He is married to Astghik, and together they're raising their three children, Sofia, Raffi, and Zara.