Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States to The Republic of Kosovo

Alyson Grunder arrived at U.S. Embassy Pristina as the Deputy Chief of Mission in August 2022. Prior to her assignment in Kosovo, she was a Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, detailed from the U.S. Department of State.

A senior foreign service officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Ms. Grunder served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia from 2018 to 2021, leading the U.S. Mission’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, she was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Senior Bureau Official in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from 2015 to 2018, managing the Bureau’s alumni outreach, innovation, evaluation and monitoring, cultural heritage, and policy offices. Ms. Grunder has served as Public Affairs Counselor at U.S. Embassies in Baghdad, Iraq, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kampala, Uganda, and Montreal, Canada. She was Acting Spokesperson at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations on 9/11. Other assignments include Director of the New York Foreign Press Center and Director of the Multilateral and Global Affairs office in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at State Department headquarters.

Ms. Grunder is a graduate of Yale University with a B.A. degree in American Studies. She is married to musician Rick Bassett. They have two adult children.