Jo Ellen Powell

Who is Jo Ellen Powell?

Jo Ellen Powell is a career member of the United States Foreign Service who served as Consul General in Frankfurt, Germany and was nominated as the US ambassador to Mauritania by Barack Obama on July 15, 2010. She has been known in Frankfurt for her active engagement with Germany's Muslim community, as well as with students, through the "Windows on America" program. Prior to that Powell was the Executive Director of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Director of the Office of Employee Relations, and Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia. Powell has also served in France, Italy, Lebanon, and Jordan. She is married to Stephen Engelken, also a career diplomat and current deputy chief of mission to Islamabad in Pakistan, with whom she has a 20-year old son who studies at the George Washington University in Washington.