Diplomat in Residence – Midwest
(IL, MN, WI)
Tours: Deputy Chief of Mission/Chargé d’Affaires Ljubljana, Slovenia; Director of the Office of South Central Europe (Western Balkans), Washington; Graduate Student at the Eisenhower School, National Defense University, Washington; Deputy Chief of Mission Port Louis, Mauritius; Public Affairs Officer Kigali, Rwanda; Multilateral Affairs Officer Geneva, Switzerland; Economic Officer Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; OSCE Desk Officer, Washington; Economic Officer Havana, Cuba; Economic and Consular Officer Bamako, Mali.
Career Track: Economic Officer
Years of Service: 23
Prior Experience: Teacher of English as a Second Language
Languages: French, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian (sort of…)
Education: M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the Eisenhower School at National Defense University (2017); M.A. in International Relations from the George Washington University (1997); B.S. in Psychology from the University of Iowa (1990).
Interesting Experience: Where to start? From the serious to the ridiculous, every day on this job brings something interesting and new. From rescuing four abducted American citizen children in my first tour as a Consular officer to trying to figure out how to find pretzels in West Africa for a visiting Secretary of State; swapping t-shirts with one of Fidel Castro’s security thugs at a rally in Havana to having my fortune read by a Santería priest; being present in Srebrenica to honor the victims of the 1995 genocide to playing softball (very carefully) in a formerly mine-strewn field; visiting the magnificent gorillas in Rwanda to dealing with the embassy walk-in of a wanted war criminal; successfully helping us get a more secure embassy building to celebrating Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist holidays with staff in Mauritius; witnessing the end of a 27-year long bilateral feud between Greece and North Macedonia over the latter country’s name; meeting dissidents, presidents, prime ministers; visiting assistance projects that make real differences in people’s lives; marching in Pride parades; supporting women’s empowerment; this list could go on and on. I look forward to sharing my stories with you.
Last Post: Deputy Chief of Mission in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Why I Chose a Foreign Service Career: I first went overseas to teach English as a second language in 1992, starting in Tokyo, then followed by stints in Bangkok and Prague. I loved the thrill of learning new cultures and languages and realized I wanted to find a job that would enable me to continue doing this. The Foreign Service, with its many career tracks, certainly fit the bill, so I took the Foreign Service exam. Best decision of my life!