Ambassador

Dr. Roy L. Austin

Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Dr. Roy Leslie Austin

Dr. Roy L. Austin arrived in Port of Spain on November 27, 2001 to assume his duties as the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Ambassador Austin was born in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in 1939. There, he was a customs officer, a secondary school teacher, carnival bandleader, captain of the national soccer team, and was selected for trials for the national cricket squad. He moved to the United States in 1964 to attend Yale University, graduating with a B.A. in sociology and was a classmate of the future president, George W. Bush. He then attended the University of Washington and obtained Master’s (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in sociology.

Ambassador Roy L. Austin was sworn in on October 19, 2001, as United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. At the time of to his nomination by U.S. President George W. Bush on August 31, 2001, he was a faculty member of the Pennsylvania State University where he held the position of Associate Professor of Sociology, Justice and African American Studies. During the period 1994-1998, he served as Director of the Crime, Law and Justice Program at Penn State; and in July 2001, he became Director of the Africana Research Center. He is the author of numerous publications, some on the Caribbean; and has conducted advanced research on crime in several countries, including Trinidad and Tobago.

Ambassador Austin has been married to Glynis Sutherland Austin since 1967. They have three grown children.