Ljubica Acevska

Ljubica Acevska
Native name	Љубица Ацевска
Born	1957 (age 59–60) Capari, Bitola Municipality, SR Macedonia, Yugoslavia
Citizenship	Macedonia
Alma mater	Ohio State University
Title	First Macedonian Ambassador to the United States
Term	1995–2002
Successor	Nikola Dimitrov

Ljubica Z. Acevska (born 1957) is a Macedonian diplomat. A former U.S. citizen by naturalization and an economic consultant by profession, she quit her job in 1992 to become Macedonia's unofficial liaison in Washington, D.C. and relinquished U.S. citizenship in 1995 to take up her new officially-accredited role as the first Macedonian Ambassador to the United States. She served in that post until 2002, when she was succeeded by Nikola Dimitrov.

Though Acevska herself was an immigrant to the United States, her family had ties there going back several generations. Both her great-grandfather and her grandfather moved to the United States ahead of her own parents, in 1917 and 1940 respectively. Her grandfather settled in Mansfield, Ohio, where he opened a restaurant. Acevska was born and raised in the small village of Capari near Yugoslavia's border with Greece. In her youth, she had ambitions to become an astronaut.

Acevska emigrated from Yugoslavia to the United States with her parents and brother in 1966; her father and uncle worked at the restaurant owned by her grandfather. Her maternal relatives remained in Yugoslavia. She had a bicultural Macedonian American upbringing, learning English in school while speaking Macedonian and eating Macedonian cuisine at home. She went on to attend Ohio State University, where she majored in political science. Afterwards, she was a graduate school instructor. She later became a partner and consultant in Middle East-focused international trade and economic development firm Gulf Enterprises.

After Macedonia became an independent country in late 1991 with the breakup of Yugoslavia, Acevska, on her visits to the land of her birth, would often urge government officials there to send a representative to Washington. Eventually, President Kiro Gligorov asked her to take on that job, in what was intended to be only a temporary arrangement lasting for two months. She stepped down from her position at Gulf Enterprises in order to focus on the new appointment. At that point, the United States did not yet formally recognize Macedonia, which had several implications for her role. Rather than being accredited as an ambassador and appearing on the State Department's Diplomatic List, she instead registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. With a budget of only $40,000 per year from the Macedonian government, she took on both diplomatic tasks such as debt negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and dealing with complaints from the State Department about Macedonia's adherence to voluntary export restraints or alleged violations of sanctions against Serbia, and consular tasks such as travel advice to Macedonians holding expired Yugoslav passports.

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