Rozanne L. Ridgway
Ridgway in 2010
14thAssistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs
In office July 19, 1985 – June 30, 1989
President	Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush
Preceded by	Richard Burt
Succeeded by	Raymond Seitz
United States Ambassador to East Germany
In office January 26, 1983 – July 13, 1985
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Herbert Okun
Succeeded by	Francis Meehan
19thCounselor of the United States Department of State
In office March 20, 1980 – February 24, 1981
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Matthew Nimetz
Succeeded by	Robert McFarlane
United States Ambassador to Finland
In office August 5, 1977 – February 20, 1980
President	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	Mark Austad
Succeeded by	James Goodby
Personal details
Born	Rozanne Lejeanne Ridgway (1935-08-22)August 22, 1935 (age 90) Saint Paul,Minnesota, U.S.
Party	Republican
Alma mater	Hamline University

Rozanne Lejeanne Ridgway (born August 22, 1935) is an American diplomat who served 32 years with theU.S. State Department, holding several posts, including ambassador toFinland and toEast Germany, and finished her career asAssistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs.

Ridgway has been an American foreign policy leader since theRichard Nixon administration. She has acted as an international negotiator on behalf of theUnited States.

In the early 1970s, Ridgway negotiated longstanding issues over fishing rights inBrazil,Peru and theBahamas. This led to her appointment in 1976 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State forOceans andFisheries. During her tenure, she negotiated the 200-mile (370 km) fishing rights treaty. Ridgway's subsequent negotiations led to the return of property of U.S. citizens fromCzechoslovakia.^[1]

As Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Negotiations and, subsequently, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, she was the lead negotiator at all four Reagan-Gorbachev summits. These brought the first substantive reductions in nuclear weapons, signaled the beginning of the end of Communism and the Cold War, and established the fundamental realignment of global power as America prepared to enter the twenty-first century.^[1]

Between Ridgway's positions at the Department of State, she served as America's Ambassador toFinland from 1977 to 1980 and as the Ambassador to theGerman Democratic Republic between 1983 and 1985.^[2]

She is a member of the following organizations:

• Council on Foreign Relations
• Trilateral Commission
• Bilderberg Group
• National Geographic Society (Trustee)
• Brookings Institution (Trustee)

She was president of theAtlantic Council from 1989 to 1996, and currently the chairwoman of theBaltic-American Freedom Foundation.^[3]

In 1998, Ridgway was inducted into theNational Women's Hall of Fame.^[4]

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