Darren Thies is a Foreign Service Officer generalist on the Public Diplomacy career track who joined the State Department in 2010. Darren started his Foreign Service career in Dushanbe, Tajikistan where he served as the junior officer in the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) Section at the U.S. Embassy. Darren then served his consular tour as the Fraud Prevention Manager in U.S. Embassy Bucharest’s Consular Section. Following that, Darren served as an Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Kabul, Afghanistan; Public Affairs Officer in Vladivostok, Russia; Information Officer in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Public Affairs Officer in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Human Rights Officer in the Office of Iranian Affairs in Washington.

Darren has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he also studied Farsi, Hindi, and Spanish. Darren has studied Tajiki, Russian, Dari, Romanian, and Farsi while in the Foreign Service. Darren began his college education at Ripon College in Wisconsin where he played soccer and tennis for the intercollegiate teams.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Darren worked as a seaweed harvester for Lake Lawn Resort in his hometown of Delavan, Wisconsin and a bus driver for Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado. He also worked as a ski instructor, a substitute teacher, soccer coach, soccer referee, resident assistant, landscaper, Domino’s pizza deliverer, and plastics factory worker. This goes to show that Foreign Service Officers come from all kinds of backgrounds with highly diverse experiences.

Darren is married to Rimma Thies who is originally from Armenia. Together they have three children. Rimma has worked for the State Department in multiple positions as both an eligible family member and as direct hire. Their current assignment is at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia.

You can follow Darren on the main social media accounts - Facebook: Darren Thies, Instagram: darren_thies, X (Twitter): DarrenThies, YouTube: Darren Thies

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