Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky will retire from his position as Professor of Practice at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, effective June 1, 2025.
When Ambassador Levitsky joined the Ford School in 2006, it was a homecoming. After graduating from Michigan in 1960, he spent 35 years overseas as a U.S. diplomat, serving as U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and later Brazil, and holding other senior posts in Washington DC, Russia, and Germany.
Wherever he went, Ambassador Levitsky carried his Michigan pride with him. He recalled a meeting in Russia with then-President Gerald Ford (AB '35, HLLD '74) where they discussed the outcome of the 1974 Michigan vs. Ohio State football game and commiserated about Michigan’s loss to OSU that day. Ford later sent Levitsky a framed picture of their meeting, engraved: To Mel Levitsky, who suffered our defeat to OSU.
At the Ford School, Ambassador Levitsky taught graduate courses in the areas of foreign affairs and international relations, drug, crime and terrorism policy, and U.S. national security. He emphasized building the critical policy analysis and communication skills that served him so well as a diplomat—how to break down intractable problems, examine potential solutions, and communicate them succinctly and effectively.
One of his former students, Will Rich (MPP ‘09), now Global Head of Client Risk Management & Advisory, Sanctions Compliance at Citi, shares that Ambassador Levitsky has remained a trusted mentor and a friend throughout his career as an intelligence officer, policy advisor, diplomat, and in banking. “Mel’s firm encouragement inspired me to remain focused on the difficult policy issues and devising solutions that got me interested in the Ford School in the first place. His influence on me did not end when I left Ann Arbor. I've consulted him each time I've made a major professional decision, and his advice has always managed that difficult balance of being encouraging, realistic, sympathetic, and far-sighted. In a word, wise.”
Rich continues, “Mel has been one of those trajectory-changing teachers and mentors that make higher education, and the Ford School in particular, such an indispensable force for good in the world."
Beyond the classroom, Ambassador Levitsky also served as a senior associate of the Ford School’s International Policy Center, senior advisor to the Weiser Diplomacy Center, and faculty associate of the university’s Center for Russian and East European Studies.
Ambassador Levitsky’s former colleague John Ciorciari, now Dean of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at IU Bloomington, says, “Mel is exactly what a professor of practice ought to be. He has encyclopedic knowledge and experience in a vital area—international policy—loves training and mentoring students, engages eagerly with academic research, and is passionately committed to U-M. His success as an American diplomat and as a professor at his alma mater are rooted in his care for people, for his country, and for broader ideals that should continue to shape U.S. foreign policy. Mine is one of many lives he has touched immeasurably. He is an absolute gem whom the Ford School can be proud to call its own.”
Before joining the University of Michigan, Ambassador Levitsky served as professor of practice in public administration and international relations, teaching for eight years at both Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Internationally, Ambassador Levitsky’s leadership has been recognized by his election to the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent body of experts headquartered in Vienna and responsible for monitoring and promoting standards of drug control established by international treaties. He served on the INCB until 2012.
During his career as a U.S. diplomat, Levitsky was ambassador to Bulgaria (1984-1987), Brazil (1994-98), and held such senior positions as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, Executive Secretary of the State Department, Deputy Director of the Voice of America, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights. Ambassador Levitsky also served as director of the State Department's Office of UN Political Affairs and as officer-in-charge of U.S.-Soviet Bilateral Relations. He also served as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and a consul at U.S. Consulates in Belem, Brazil, and Frankfurt, Germany.
Ambassador Levitsky is the recipient of numerous Department of State Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards and Presidential Meritorious Service Awards. He received the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award, is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the U.S. Foreign Service Association, and the Drug Free America Foundation, and its Institute on Global Drug Policy. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the non-governmental organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) in 2018.
Ambassador Levitsky plans on spending his retirement in Ann Arbor, where he will continue to cheer on the Maize and Blue. His family of children and grandchildren are looking forward to Ambassador Levitsky having more time on his hands, and continuing to enjoy life and his range of hobbies, including reading, history, politics, and sports.
