Dec 20, 2020
Promoting international and academic exchange is really a team process. The U.S. diplomatic mission to Germany consists of the Embassy in Berlin and five consulate generals in Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt and Munich. With the new year coming, we thought it would be a great chance to highlight some of the faces that help make a great transatlantic relationship happen. Read on to learn about the US Consul Generals in Germany and what they do.
Fiona Evans assumed her duties as Consul General in August 2018. Before her arrival in Düsseldorf, she was Information Officer and Press Attaché in Nairobi, Kenya from 2016 to 2018.
Prior to this, from 2013 to 2016, she was Deputy Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin where she also served on the board of the Fulbright Commission. Her first diplomatic overseas assignment was as a Vice Consul in Lima, Peru from 2001 until 2002 followed by an assignment as Public Affairs Officer and Consular Officer in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Kenichiro (Ken) Toko assumed duty as Consul General for the U.S. Consulate General in Leipzig, covering the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia, in August 2020.
Previously, Ken served as Acting Deputy Director and Senior Germany Desk Officer of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Western European Affairs. From 2014 to 2017, he worked as Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Prior to serving in Ukraine, he was Political-Military Affairs Officer and Deputy Political Internal Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Patricia Lacina currently serves as Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany. She is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, with 29 years of experience in diplomacy, management, and policy coordination.
Previously, she served as Principal Deputy Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State. In this capacity, she was responsible for overall policy and management coordination in the Executive Secretariat. From 2013 to 2015, she served as Deputy Chief Information Officer for Business, Management and Planning and Chief Knowledge Officer.
Consul General Darion Akins arrived in Hamburg in July 2019. He is a career Foreign Service Officer, and the Ambassador’s representative to the German states of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Before his assignment to Germany, Darion was in the Executive Office for the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs and International Organization Affairs, where he oversaw the staffing of U.S. diplomatic missions in Europe and multilateral organizations, such as the U.S. Mission to the United Nations (USUN) in New York, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. Mission to the European Union (USEU), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Meghan Gregonis is the United States Consul General in Munich since July 2018. Previously, she was Deputy Director for Public Diplomacy in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs where she oversaw, broadened, and resourced Public Diplomacy engagement in Western Europe. In this capacity she also coordinated U.S. efforts to counter disinformation in Europe.
Prior Washington assignments include the National Security Council at the White House where she directed the U.S. government’s engagement on Turkish affairs from 2012-2013. At the State Department, Meghan has coordinated U.S. policy from the European and Near Eastern Affairs Bureaus.
The U.S. Consul Generals love meeting Fulbrighters including alumni and hearing about what you do. In 2021, Fulbright Germany looks forward to introducing you to each CG as the new year unfolds.
