Ambassador David Robinson is an undergraduate capstone instructor at the Jackson School of Global Affairs (2023-2024). He retired as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service in 2017, completing a 32-year career that included assignments in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Iceland, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guyana—where he served as Ambassador and Representative to the Caribbean Community—Afghanistan and Bosnia. His final appointment was Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations. He also served in a number of domestic assignments at the State Department.
Ambassador Robinson’s preferred focus within the Foreign Service was directing policy and programs responding to survival migration and refugee crises. He served in several positions within the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, including as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary. Earlier in his career he was a Fellow on the staff of Senator Joseph Lieberman, D-CT and was appointed Diplomat-in-Residence by the Keough School of Global affairs at the University of Notre Dame in 2018.