Diplomat in Residence – Rocky Mountains
(CO, ID, MT, UT, WY)
Tours: Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Vice Consul); Muscat, Oman (Human Resources and Financial Management Officer); Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (Management Officer); Lusaka Zambia (Management Officer); Baghdad, Iraq (Regional Management Officer); Wellington, New Zealand (Management Counselor); Brussels, Belgium (Deputy Director Joint Administrative Support); Baghdad, Iraq (Director of Contract Management Office); Nassau, The Bahamas (Management Counselor); Washington, DC (Supervisory Post Management Officer); Baghdad, Iraq (Management Counselor).
Career Track: Management
Years of Service: 23
Prior Careers: Before joining the service, I was a bit of an aimless wanderer. I worked a variety of jobs, including as a welder, a bar manager, and a foreman on an Alaskan floating fish processor. While working on my masters, I taught entry level university classes on political science, served as a police officer, and ran a congressional campaign.
Languages: French, Haitian Creole
Education: BA in Political Science and a MA in American Studies from Northeastern State University (NSU) in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Interesting Experience: In 20 plus years, this job never gets old! Most employees will have amazing stories about helping people in crisis. I certainly do. It is the nature of our jobs. For me though, the experiences that stand out are the places I have had the privilege to visit. Whether it was seeing the ancient architecture carved out of the mountains at Petra, exploring the ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, experiencing the raw power of Victoria Falls, or walking the hallowed WW II battlefields near Bastogne and visiting the Guadalcanal Memorial in the Solomon Islands, this life has afforded me opportunities unlike any other. However, New Zealand, more than others, sticks in my mind. We were taking a quick family trip from Wellington to the South Island. It is a short ferry ride and then you can use your own car to travel further down the island. As we were traveling back, a very nice local we were chatting with suggested a quick stop that was on our way. We pulled off at an unassuming spot along the highway and followed an unmarked trail under the railroad tracks and along a flowing stream. Several hundred yards up this path, we arrived at a beautiful waterfall with an idyllic pool at its base. New Zealand has a fair number of waterfalls, but this one was special because the pool was filled with young seal pups splashing and playing. It seems that while the mother seals are at sea hunting, the pups make their way up the stream to hang out. With no protective mothers around, you can have some great quality time with these wonderful creatures. It has been over ten years now since I was last there and somehow remembering that spot still has a calming effect on me.
Last Post: Management Counselor, Baghdad, Iraq
Why I Chose a Foreign Service Career: As I mentioned before, I was a bit of a wanderer before joining the Foreign Service. I would do a job for a few years and then lose interest. I needed a new challenge. I needed something fresh. The greatest problem with changing jobs often is loss of equity with your employer (never being able to build consistently for retirement). The Department of State gave me the balance between fresh challenges and stability; a luxury to build towards security in retirement. Every few years, we change jobs. We have the chance to keep doing the same work, but we move to a new country. Or we try something totally different in a new location. To me, it is this freedom to reinvent myself every few years that really hooked me. I have a clean slate each time but can keep the parts of me that worked at my last post and discard the elements that were less successful. In traditional settings, none of your history and baggage ever really goes away.