Marta Youth is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. She joined the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) as Deputy Assistant Secretary in November 2020, assumed the role of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in April 2022, and subsequently the role of Acting Assistant Secretary in October 2024. Prior assignments include Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Managua, Nicaragua; Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada; Director for Central American Affairs in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; and Director of the Office of Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas in PRM. Ms. Youth also served overseas at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, as Press Attaché; at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, as a Trade Officer; and at the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India, as a Consular Officer. During her State Department career additional Washington assignments included Country Assistance Coordinator for Russia and Moldova, South Africa Desk Officer, and Portugal, Malta, and Vatican City Desk Officer. She has also been assigned twice to the State Department’s Economic and Business Affairs Bureau.
Ms. Youth has been a Foreign Service Officer for more than 30 years and is a member of the Senior Foreign Service. She has a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from St. Peter’s University in New Jersey, during which she spent her junior year at the Universitá degli Studi di Firenze. She also pursued graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy, and Washington, DC. She is married to Howard Youth, who is a writer and editor. They have two adult children.