Todd Chapman

Ambassador Todd Chapman (ret.) is a non-resident senior adviser with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Ambassador Chapman recently retired after over 30 years as a distinguished career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. As the U.S. ambassador to Brazil from 2020 to 2021, he advanced a broad economic, security, and environmental agenda at the sixth-largest U.S. embassy in the world and coordinated support for over 275,000 U.S. residents in Brazil throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. He was the first U.S. ambassador to be decorated with the Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil’s highest civilian honor for non-citizens. Previously, he served as U.S. ambassador to Ecuador from 2016 to 2019, where he revitalized the bilateral relationship and attracted over $1 billion in new U.S. investment to Ecuador. His international experience through his career in the foreign service and in the private sector includes postings in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mozambique, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan. Ambassador Chapman is the recipient of several State Department Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards and is one of only two U.S. ambassadors ever to receive the Mission Integration Award from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He was selected for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2021 and was recently admitted into the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington D.C. Ambassador Chapman earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Duke University and a Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has a working knowledge of Chinese and Arabic.