Sarah Joan Langenkamp

Sarah Joan (née Debbink) Langenkamp, a wife, mother of two boys, and U.S. foreign service officer with the State Department for 17 years, died in a collision with a truck while riding home on a bicycle in Bethesda, Maryland, on August 25.

In July, Ms. Langenkamp had returned to the United States after concluding an assignment with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Working there and later in Poland after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she led a team managing some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive and important priorities in Ukraine, including reform of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions, provision of assistance to Ukraine’s non-military security institutions to fight Russia’s aggression, and U.S. cooperation on holding Russia accountable for war crimes. Her portfolio involved management of several hundred million dollars in U.S. assistance to train and equip Ukraine’s police, border guards, anti-corruption officials, and nongovernmental organizations fighting corruption. She was one of the few officers from the U.S. Embassy who remained in Poland, near the border with Ukraine, after the invasion. While she and her husband served there, their children evacuated to California to live with their grandparents, Terry & Dirk Debbink, known affectionately as “Belle Mère” and “Papa.”

Widely considered one of the brightest stars in her generation of foreign service officers, colleagues remember Sarah for her great kindness, judgment, mastery of issues, and a mission-driven leadership style that empowered staff and brought out the best in talented minds. Amidst her challenging job, Sarah had the ability to break away from pressures of her work to organize Embassy yoga sessions and spin classes, as well as bike to and from the office every day. She was a dedicated mother, believing deeply in the need for work-life balance in order to be efficient at work and a better human being. She put down work each evening to focus exclusively on her children and enjoy a glass of wine with her husband.

Born in San Diego to a Navy family on November 8, 1979, her parents moved with Sarah to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in 1983 where they raised four children. Sarah's father retired from the US Navy at the rank of Vice Admiral in 2012.

Langenkamp attended Boston College, studying political science and graduating summa cum laude in 2002. She was a fluent French speaker from a year during and after college when she studied and worked in Paris, a period which engendered in her lifelong love of French culture and wine.

Langenkamp had served in many of the world’s most challenging diplomatic missions: Ukraine, Côte d’Ivoire, Iraq, Uganda, and Haiti, in addition to taking on challenging assignments in the State Department’s offices handling NATO affairs and the UN Security Council issues. Her talents were so strong that during the Obama administration the State Department elevated her into as deputy director of the Office of UN Political Affairs, a position a full grade above her ranking, where she supervised officers senior to her.

Volunteering to serve in Iraq in 2009-2010, she served in the Embassy’s political-military office, managing border control issues to block terrorists from infiltrating the country and managing military drawdown issues as the U.S. military presence decreased.

Prior to her diplomatic career, Ms. Langenkamp briefly worked for the Scowcroft Group and with the Asia Foundation while moonlighting as a waitress and restaurant manager. She credited the latter jobs as having taught her customer service and recommended every young professional should wait tables as a training tool.

A lover of cycling and a long-time commuter by bicycle to work, Ms. Langenkamp decorated her house with bicycle motifs, giving her husband a picture for their 10th wedding anniversary featuring a traditional step-through bicycle and the words “Sarah and Dan, est. 2006.” Ms. Langenkamp was riding 12 miles each way to her new posting, fulfilling her dream of obtaining a master’s degree, by studying at the Eisenhower School at National Defense University. She was riding her bicycle home from her children’s elementary school open house on August 25 when she was killed. She is survived by her husband, two boys, and her beloved dog, Romeo, as well three of her four grandparents, her parents, three siblings and their spouses, and five nieces & nephews.

Her husband, Dan Langenkamp, has initiated a campaign to improve bicycle safety in her memory.

Those interested in contributing should go to:

https://gofund.me/944377dc (Or search for “The Sarah Langenkamp Bike Safety Memorial Fund”).