Valérie Baraban

Valérie Baraban is an aluma of the Ecole normale supérieure de Paris (Ulm), a credentialed philosophy instructor and recipient of the Prix Romieu [1].

She earned a baccalaureate diploma with an emphasis in science and was ranked the top female secondary school student. She received the scholarship for women in science and technology [2] at the Elysée Palace and took preparatory classes for the French Grandes Ecoles at Lycée Henri IV in Paris.

She began her academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught French language and philosophy, then pursued her doctoral research in France. In 2000, she joined the office of Jack Lang, French Minister of National Education, which implemented an innovative public policy on Arts Education and Culture bringing artists to schools.

Her passion for public and world affairs led her to join the French Foreign Office at the Quai d’Orsay. Her diplomatic career began in 2005 in the policy branch of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in the Strategic Affairs sector, where she was in charge of arms export control and arms control.

In 2009, she was assigned to the office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, and dealt, among other things, with emerging topics such as climate refugees.

She was then appointed to the French Embassy in Beijing, as Deputy Head of Cooperation and Cultural Service, one of France’s most important cooperation services in the world.

In 2013, she was assigned to Brussels as negotiator at the French Delegation to NATO, and monitored the Alliance’s military operations as well as the reform of intelligence governance. At that time, NATO was making changes to its operation in Afghanistan and cooperating with the European Union in view of the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, while the Allies were involved in the global coalition to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

In the summer of 2017, she joined the Elysée Palace as diplomatic advisor of the National Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Coordinator. She was responsible in particular for France’s international initiatives related to combatting the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes, mobilization against the financing of terrorism and strengthening security strategies in Europe.

On September 1, 2021, she began her duties as Consul General of France in Houston.