Patricia Gates Lynch simultaneously served as the United States Ambassador to Madagascar and the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros from 1986 through 1989, one of only ten women serving as a U.S. ambassador at the time.  Before her diplomatic appointments, Pat spent a quarter of a century with the Voice of America.  Known there as Pat Gates, she hosted VOA’s worldwide “Breakfast Show.”  With an estimated audience of 45 million listeners, “The Breakfast Show” was consistently rated the leading program on the Voice of America.

Prior to joining the Voice of America, Pat Gates reported for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Armed Forces Network (AFN) from Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Iran, Hungary, Poland, and Turkey.

She served on the White House staff as Press Assistant to Mrs. Richard Nixon and accompanied the First Lady and the President on their official visits to many world capitals.  During the Vietnam War, she flew into Vietnam with President and Mrs. Nixon on Air Force One.  After her tour at the White House, Pat hosted the "Breakfast Show" at her Voice of America microphone.  During that time, she lectured and conducted interviews for the program in the People’s Republic of China, where she was a guest of Radio Beijing.  She also made lecture tours to Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, and Australia before giving up her microphone for diplomacy.

After her ambassadorial assignments, Pat Gates Lynch returned to her career in international radio as Director of Corporate Affairs for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the radios acclaimed for broadcasting into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  In that capacity, from 1989 to 1994, she acted as the representative in Washington for the Munich-based RFE/RL.

During her career, she was president of the Washington Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, and Chairman of the Washington International Committee of the Red Cross.

She was Chairman of the Board of the nongovernmental Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, housed at the Foreign Service Institute.  She is Vice President of the Council of American Ambassadors, and a Board Member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.  She is a member of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, the American News Woman’s Club, and the Cosmos Club.

Pat Gates Lynch has two children and two grandchildren.  She is married to Lt. General Julian Johnson Ewell, U.S. Army (Ret.).  They live on the Chesapeake Bay, and have an apartment in Virginia.

For more information on Pat Gates Lynch, please contact ninespeakers@usa.net.