Curriculum Vitae

United States Consul General
Sapporo, Japan

Marrie Y. Schaefer serves as the Consul General for the Sapporo Consular District, which covers the northern one third of Japan. Of the five consulates in Japan, Sapporo's consular district is the largest geographically with a population of over 12 million and a GDP close to that of South Korea. She manages a staff of thirty-two, including two Americans, twelve State Department Foreign Service National Employees, two Commerce Department employees, and sixteen contract employees.

Immediately prior to assuming her current post, Marrie Schaefer served in Washington, DC as a Congressional Foreign Affairs Fellow in the Office of Oregon Senator, Ron Wyden. Previous to her assignment on Capitol Hill, she served in the Economic Section of the Office of Japanese Affairs at the Department of State, where Ms. Schaefer received a U.S. Department of State Superior Honor award for exceptional performance redefining U.S. Government cooperation with Japan on global issues. During this period, she was detailed to the Office of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as Special Assistant for East Asian Pacific Affairs.

Ms. Schaefer's most recent overseas posting was as Public Affairs Officer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she served as Embassy spokesperson and directed a broad range of public diplomacy activities including media relations and educational and cultural exchanges. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Tokyo, Japan, and as Assistant Public Affairs Officer in Madagascar.

Her previous Washington assignments include Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs and Geographic Liaison Officer for East Asia Pacific in the Office of International Information Programs. Before joining the U.S. Foreign Service, she worked as a cross-cultural consultant in San Diego, California and as Assistant Professor of English at Sapporo University, Japan.

Born in Sapporo, Japan, Ms. Schaefer earned a B.S. and M.S. in Education from Northern Illinois University. She holds a Certificate in Organization Development from Georgetown University. She speaks fluent Japanese and has a working knowledge of French and Khmer. She is married to Foreign Service Officer Robert R. Kuntz II who will be assigned to Yokohama in 2005 as Director of the U.S. Foreign Service Institute's School of Japanese Language.