Martin McDowell, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, is the Director for the Office of South Central European Affairs (EUR/SCE) at the Department of State. 

Before joining the SCE team, he most recently served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau, Moldova; previous overseas assignments include Slovakia, El Salvador, Moldova, and Slovenia.  

In prior Washington assignments, Martin was also the Deputy Director in the Office for Central European Affairs, Special Assistant for Europe in the Office of the Undersecretary for Political Affairs, and desk officer for Norway and Sweden.  

Born and raised in Alabama, Martin received a MA from the University of Alabama in 1996 and a Master’s in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College in 2010.  Martin speaks Romanian, Russian, Czech, Slovene, Spanish and Slovak.