Diplomat in Residence – South
(AL, GA, SC)
Tours: Juba, South Sudan (Political-Economic Counselor); Islamabad, Pakistan (Counterterrorism Unit Chief); Washington, DC (Project Manager at the National HUMINT Requirements Tasking Center); Washington, DC (Deputy Director of the Counterterrorism Bureau Office of Terrorist Screening and Interdiction); Lilongwe, Malawi (Political Section Chief); Dhaka, Bangladesh (Political-Military Officer); Nairobi, Kenya (Regional Counterterrorism Coordinator); Islamabad, Pakistan (Political Officer); Sao Paulo, Brazil (Consular Officer); Bogota, Colombia (Consular Officer)
Career Track: Economic
Years of Service: 19
Prior Experience: My first career was as a sales and marketing specialist for agricultural chemical manufacturers Dow AgroSciences and Bayer Crop Science.
Languages: Spanish, Portuguese
Education: Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Tuskegee University; Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Business and Economics from Auburn University
Interesting Experience: Preventing terrorists from crossing international borders and playing a role in bringing an FBI Most Wanted criminal to justice.
Last Post: Juba, South Sudan (Political-Economic Counselor)
Why I Chose the Foreign Service: I was always interested in learning about the world and working internationally but I had no idea how to do it. My initial plan was to leverage a career in the agribusiness industry to work internationally based on the logic that “everybody has to eat.” As my desire to explore the world grew, I decided to resign from my corporate job to become a Peace Corps Volunteer (Ecuador 1998 – 2000) . In Ecuador, I met the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy who was a black man from my home state of Georgia and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. We had a conversation about State Department careers, and I was hooked. Becoming a Foreign Service Officer changed the trajectory of my life and has been a non-stop adventure.