Todd Huizinga joined the Acton Institute in February 2014 as Director of International Outreach.
A U.S. diplomat from 1992-2012, he speaks German, Spanish, French and Dutch. He served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Luxembourg, political counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, consul for political and economic affairs at the U.S. consulates in Hamburg and Munich, and consul for public affairs at the U.S. consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. He has also served at embassies and consulates in Dublin, Frankfurt and Costa Rica, and in the European Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. He has received seven Meritorious Honor Awards for his diplomatic work, including for his reporting on political affairs in Germany and Costa Rica, his contributions to the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and his role in organizing visits of President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush to Europe and Latin America. He was also awarded for spearheading U.S. government participation in the 2011 Munich Security Conference, attended by the U.S. secretary of state, nineteen U.S. Senators and Representatives and other officials. While serving in Mexico, he helped institute the Binational Center of Texas A&M International University, an organization that serves civic organizations and promotes economic development in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
In 2013, he established with a Dutch associate the Transatlantic Christian Council, a non-profit corporation that promotes limited government, the free market, individual liberty and civic virtue on both sides of the Atlantic. He is also a research fellow of the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics.
He is a frequent public speaker on international affairs, appearing at universities, parliaments, think tanks and business and civic organizations in the U.S. and abroad. He has given interviews in media outlets such as the BBC, the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and numerous other TV newsmagazines, radio outlets and newspapers in the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he is married and has three children. He holds a B.A. in Music and German from Calvin College and an M.A. in German Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
