BIO

Daniel Lawton is a senior member of the Foreign Service with more than 30 years of diplomatic experience. Prior to becoming Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw in May 2022, he was Director of the Ukraine Task Force at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that, he was Director of the Bureau for Central European Affairs at the State Department for three years. In this position, he worked to strengthen bilateral ties with ten Central European countries, particularly Poland.

Lawton served as Principal Officer, leading the team at the US Consulate General in Belfast, Northern Ireland from 2015 to 2018. Prior to his time in Belfast, he was Deputy Director of the Bureau for Southern Europe at the US Department of State.

In addition, Lawton served in US embassies as Political Counselor in Athens, Greece, as Deputy Political Counselor in Caracas, Venezuela, and as Political-Military Affairs Diplomat in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Earlier in his career, Lawton held diplomatic posts in Lima, Peru; Karachi, Pakistan; and Mexico City, Mexico. He has also held various positions at the State Department in Washington, D.C., as a specialist on Cyprus and a specialist on Sri Lanka.

Lawton earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international relations from Brown University and Syracuse University, respectively. He and his wife Paula Hawkins are originally from Syracuse, New York. They have two adult children.