Melissa J. Lan assumed the role of Consul General of the Consulate General of the United States of America in Wuhan, China, on October 18, 2021. Ms. Lan is a career Foreign Service Officer and prior to her arrival was the Acting Director of the Office of Afghanistan Affairs.
Ms. Lan has focused on East and South Central Asia for over a decade, including as the U.S. Embassy Beijing 2008 Olympics Coordinator, in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, and with the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Her other assignments include the Office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the Executive Secretariat, Foreign Policy Advisor, Office of Maghreb Affairs, and U.S. Embassy Beirut, Lebanon. She also served at the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen and following suspension of operations in 2015 helped establish the Yemen Affairs Unit in Jeddah.
A Michigan native, Ms. Lan has a BA from Duke University and an MPP from Princeton University. She is fluent in Mandarin and has studied Arabic, French, and Korean.