Joseph Bookbinder assumed duties as Public Diplomacy Section Chief for the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on August 1, 2013.
Mr. Bookbinder has served as a Foreign Service Officer for 21 years. He joined the United States Foreign Service in 1992 and has had overseas assignments in New Delhi, Taipei, Chengdu, Beijing and Hong Kong. His most recent overseas assignment was as the Chief of the Public Diplomacy Section at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong from 2009-2012, where he worked on a range of press, cultural and education programs, including expanding the Fulbright Program and EducationUSA and increasing the Consulate’s social media outreach.
Mr. Bookbinder has also had three domestic State Department assignments. He was in charge of the East Asia portfolio at the Washington Foreign Press Center from 2003-2006. He was the Policy Officer and Cultural Coordinator in the Office of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2006-2008. Most recently, he served on the State Department’s Board of Examiners as an Assessor from 2012-2013.
Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Bookbinder worked at Harvard Magazine and, subsequently, taught English and American History at two Chinese universities in Chengdu and Guangzhou from 1986-1988.
Mr. Bookbinder was born on Long Island, New York. He attended Harvard University where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree (with Honors) in History.
Mr. Bookbinder speaks Chinese and French. He is joined in Taiwan by his wife, Min, and two sons.
