New U.S. ambassador to Haiti has kept his Minnesota roots through many far-flung postings

Roving U.S. envoy Dennis Hankins’ diplomatic career has carried him from a Bemidji childhood to postings around the world.

Though he hasn’t lived in Minnesota for nearly half a century, Hankins said he always declares it as his current home state when the White House sends his name to the Senate for nomination.

“The first time I was nominated for ambassador about eight years ago, going to Guinea, you do an extensive interview with a lawyer from the White House, and he was talking about background,” Hankins said. He said the lawyer told him that a nominee doesn’t have to say they are from the state where they pay taxes. But, Hankins said, the lawyer advised that “if you got an emotional attachment to Minnesota, just say Minnesota.”

The 1977 Bemidji High School graduate abided by this advice: “The three times I’ve been nominated as ambassador, I’ve cited Minnesota.”

The Senate confirmed Hankins last week as ambassador to Haiti, a nation badly wracked by gang violence and struggling to find enough political footing to allow its citizens to choose their own leaders.

Hankins moved to Bemidji as a boy in the early 1960s. His family had been living overseas, where his father was working for Esso on oil refinery projects, but chose to return to his mother’s hometown to give Hankins and his older brother a more stable education.

Hankins credits his upbringing and public education in Bemidji as building blocks for his many decades in the U.S. Foreign Service in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

As a high school sophomore, Hankins traveled on his own to France, where his father was working on an oil refinery project.

“But he was really busy,” he said, “so as a 14-year-old, I did a Eurail pass through Europe. On a train ride between Vienna and Denmark, I happened to meet an American diplomat, a Foreign Service officer, and that’s the first time I ever heard about the State Department.

“I figured, ‘Ah, that sounds interesting: overseas, and I don’t have to be that good at math and science.’”

After high school, Hankins earned degrees at Georgetown University and the National War College.

Now 64, he spoke fondly of his Bemidji memories: sledding, pond hockey, taking walks in the forest and riding his bike 10 miles one way to a friend’s resort.

While he was ambassador in Guinea, “we had a big, robust Peace Corps operation. And once we had 20 new volunteers come in, of which 12 were either from Minnesota or Wisconsin,” he said. “That’s still, I think, reflective of that social engagement that you see over the years. … I think that’s still a little in my psyche.”

Looking ahead to working and making a difference in Haiti, Hankins said he has always seized on the challenges of working in places suffering unrest and uncertainty.