Diplomat in Residence – South

(AL, GA, SC)


Andrei Cotton, Diplomat In Residence – South

Region: South

Affiliate Schools: Spellman College (HBCU) and Morehouse College (HBCU)

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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.