New U.S. Chargé d’Affaires arrives in Belarus

On June 30, 2014, Chargé d’Affaires Scott Rauland arrived in Minsk to assume duties as head of the U.S. Embassy to Belarus.

Previously, Mr. Rauland served as the Director of the Foreign Policy Advisor Program in the Bureau of Political Military Affairs (2012-14), Public Affairs Officer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2010-12); in Kabul, Afghanistan (2008-09); in Frankfurt (2005-07); as Consul General in Yekaterinburg, Russia (2003-05);  Public Affairs Officer in Quito, Ecuador (2000-2003); Information Center Director in Islamabad, Pakistan (1998-2000); Program Development Officer in Berlin for the new German states (1995-98); and Assistant Public Affairs Officer in Baku, Azerbaijan (1993-94).  He is a member of the Senior Foreign Service, and is fluent in Russian, German and Spanish.

Before joining the Department of State, Scott was a pioneer in distance education, teaching classes in Russian via television to students in rural Wisconsin from 1990 to 1993.   He was named an NEH “Master Educator” in 1992. Scott’s first professional experience overseas was in Germany, where he lived and worked from 1982-84 teaching English at a Berlitz language school in Wiesbaden and studying at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. In 1988, he worked as a guide on the USIA [US Information Agency] Exhibit «Иформатика в жизни США/Computer Science in the Life of the USA» in Minsk, Leningrad, and Magnitogorsk.

He is married to Frances Rauland and has two children, Patrick and Alexandra. Scott is a graduate of Big Foot High School in Walworth, Wisconsin. He received a BA in European History from the University of Chicago in 1981 and an MA in Russian Language and Literature from Ohio State University in 1986.