Elena Poptodorova () (born August 31, 1951) is a Bulgarian politician and diplomat, who has served two times as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bulgaria to the United States. Early life Elena Poptodorova was born on August 31, 1951 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a degree in English and Italian linguistic and literary studies from Sofia University (1974). Foreign Ministry service Elena Poptodorova joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975 as a high-level interpreter for the Bulgarian Government. She later entered into a career of diplomacy. She served from 3rd secretary through minister-counselor in the Secretariat, the State Protocol, the Cabinet of the Minister and the UN and Disarmament Directorates through 1990, when she was elected to the national legislature. From 1987 to 1990 she was minister-counselor at the Bulgarian embassy in Rome and Bulgaria's Consul General to the Republic of San Marino. Prior to her appointment in Washington, Ambassador Elena Poptodorova was Director of the Security Policy Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position, which she held for a year starting on August 1, 2009. From – 2009 she served as Ambassador-at-Large for the Black Sea Region at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before her first mandate as the Ambassador of Bulgaria to the US, she served as a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director of the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Organizations Directorate. From 2002 to 2008 she was Bulgaria's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America, when Bulgaria became a member of NATO and the EU. She started the Bulgaria Caucus on the Hill, the Honorary Consuls corps and the network of Bulgarian schools in the US, among many others. She was sent a second time to the same post in 2010, and remained in the office until May 16, 2016. Ambassador Poptodorova is fluent in English, Italian, French, Russian, and her native Bulgarian. Post-diplomatic career She is vice-president of the Atlantic Treaty Association, and director for Euro-Atlantic affairs at the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria. Member of the National Parliament Poptodorova had a long career as a politician right from the beginning of the changes in Bulgaria in 1989. She was first elected a member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria in the 7th Constituent Assembly from the list of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in 1990, and was a speaker of the Parliamentary group of BSP. She