David Rank
Adjunct Lecturer
About
Dave Rank spent 27 years as a State Department Foreign Service Officer, including his final assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission and, following the 2016 election, as the Charge d’Affaires (acting Ambassador) at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. In addition to six Foreign Service assignments in greater China (three in Beijing, two at the American Institute in Taiwan and one at the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai), Dave Rank served at the U.S. embassies in Kabul, Athens, and Port Louis (Mauritius). In Washington, he worked in the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP), the State Department Korea desk and as a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
In 2015 he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award for his role in the release of the only American servicemember held by the enemy in Afghanistan. He is also the recipient of the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Award for the study of languages and their related cultures.
In addition to teaching at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Dave Rank is also a Senior Advisor at The Cohen Group and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC). He speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Dari, and Greek. He and his wife, Mary, have three children.
In 2015 he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award for his role in the release of the only American servicemember held by the enemy in Afghanistan. He is also the recipient of the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Award for the study of languages and their related cultures.
In addition to teaching at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Dave Rank is also a Senior Advisor at The Cohen Group and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC). He speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Dari, and Greek. He and his wife, Mary, have three children.