Diplomat Couple from Hawley, Minnesota

Originally from Hawley, Tim Gerhardson (Pakistan 1990-90), a Foreign Service officer, and Christina Gerhardson, a Foreign Service specialist, retired from 22 years as diplomats in the United States Foreign Service in June 2023. The couple met in high school and went on to serve together in the same countries throughout their tenure in the Foreign Service.

During their retirement ceremony in October, the Gerhardsons caught the attention of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a tandem couple retiring together. Usually, both members of a couple are not diplomats. More often, one is a diplomat and the other travels as a spouse.

Tim and Christina Gerhardson during their time working at the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia.

Some of the Gerhardsons’ earliest exposure to the world outside the United States was through international students. Both their families hosted international students when they were growing up.

When he was 15, Tim Gerhardson’s family adopted Laotian refugees, and they later adopted Vietnamese refugees.

“So, we had this internationalism, if you would, in our house,” Tim Gerhardson said. “I think what it taught me was how to manage cross-cultural communication.”

Christina and Tim Gerhardson enjoy ancient architecture in Cambodia.

During college at Minnesota State University Moorhead, then called Moorhead State University, Tim Gerhardson volunteered to teach English to international students, an experience that later qualified him to join the Peace Corps. During that time, he also participated in an exchange program in China. He was in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

“It was a very short-lived experience,” Christina Gerhardson said. “We weren’t sure how long our assignment would be, but it ended up only being a few months, and that really opened my eyes.”

At the same time, Tim Gerhardson had joined the Peace Corps. In 1990, he was serving in the northwest corner of Pakistan.

“The Peace Corps was a proving ground, if you would, for me and also for my ability to project American values and our national interests abroad,” Tim Gerhardson said.

Tim and Christina Gerhardson depart Hector International Airport for a Civil Service assignment in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2001.

Their first assignment together was while Tim Gerhardson was serving in the U.S. Civil Service in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2001. Christina Gerhardson and the couple’s daughter accompanied him as family members. At the time, the Iraq War was happening, and around a month after their assignment started, 9/11 happened.

“It wasn’t the easiest assignment,” Christina Gerhardson said.

The Gerhardsons worked their way from the Civil Service to the Foreign Service, where they were tenured as career diplomats.

Tim Gerhardson said they have traveled to over 100 countries.

Tim and Christina Gerhardson hike Torro del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia.

In his role as a Foreign Service officer, Tim Gerhardson’s job was public diplomacy, which focused on influencing the country he was assigned to.

“Public diplomacy is all outreach,” he said. “So, what I’m trying to do is influence a country to support American policies, values, programs, economic development opportunities, academic collaboration, entrepreneurship, whatever it might be.”

Foreign Service Officer Tim Gerhardson, left, meets with Romanian press officials near the Romania-Ukraine border weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The scope of that job changed depending on the country. In Romania, there was a focus on the Russia-Ukraine war, dispelling disinformation and promoting NATO. In Zimbabwe, Tim Gerhardson focused on outreach around AIDS and HIV.

As a Foreign Service specialist, Christina Gerhardson was a management specialist. She served in different areas of U.S. embassies, like the office of U.S. ambassadors or security offices.

Tim Gerhardson’s advice to young people growing up in Hawley or other small towns in the region is to consider a career in the Foreign Service. With more than 330 million people, the United States is diverse, he said.

“We need to show the face of the United States as we are across the United States, not just in the big cities and the coast,” Tim Gerhardson said.

U.S. Foreign Service workers Tim and Christina Gerhardson celebrate with Afghan students of the U.S. Embassy Youth Outreach skateboard program called “Skateistan” at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Today, the Gerhardsons live in Alexandria, Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C. The first year of their retirement has been spent catching up with family and friends in the United States, Christina Gerhardson said. The couple is also searching for somewhere to build a house in New England.

Next, they plan to keep traveling. They have trips planned to Tahiti and France in the near future.

“We still love to travel,” Christina Gerhardson said.