Victoria Taylor is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ms. Taylor joined the Department of State in 2003. Ms. Taylor was the Director for North African Affairs from 2021 to 2023 and the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Croatia from 2018 to 2021. She has served as the Deputy Director for Western Europe in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and as the Director for Balkans, Caucasus, and Black Sea Affairs at the National Security Council, where she coordinated U.S. policy and advanced U.S. interests in the region. Other Washington assignments include positions in the Office of Iranian Affairs, on the Turkey Desk in the Office of Southern European Affairs, and as an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Taylor has served overseas at U.S. Embassies in Georgia, Tunisia, and Pakistan, as well as at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan. Ms. Taylor hails from Springfield, Missouri. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She speaks French, Mandarin, Russian, and Urdu.