In the Department of State she was deputy ambassador in Madagascar (1998–2000) and in the Central African Republic where she coordinated the international diplomatic corps during a military mutiny (1996–1997). In Washington, she was director of the department's Office of Social and Humanitarian Affairs overseeing U.S. liaison with United Nations Committees in Geneva and New York (2002–2004) following her service as diplomat in residence at Howard University (2001–2002). While in Lesotho, she arranged for funding that led to the first water delivery system throughout the country. In Sierra Leone, she helped the country transition from a very long civil war as well as an anti-AIDS campaign. She returned to the US in 2009 and retired from the U.S. Department of State in January 2010. In 2011, she became the Cyrus Vance Visiting Professor of International Relations through 2012 at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
