This episode is about honoring

Leslie M. Alexander (1948-  ) Leslie M. Alexander is a Career Foreign Service Officer. He was appointed by President William J. Clinton to serve as U.S. Ambassador to three nations: Mauritius and the Comoros where he served from 1993 to 1996, Ecuador where he served from 1996 to 1999, and Haiti where he served from 1999 to 2000.

Ambassador Alexander was born in Frankfurt, Germany on November 9, 1948 to an African American father from Houston, Texas who at that point was part of the U.S. Army of occupation. His mother was born in France.  They married in Germany and Alexander grew up in both France and Germany.  His primary and secondary educations were in France and he only briefly lived in the United States at the time, in New York City as a child.

Alexander attended the University of Maryland (Munich branch), receiving a BA from the institution in 1970.  He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1971. Through the State Department Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Maryland he studied Economics earning a certificate in 1980, and the Portuguese language where he earned a certificate in 1983. He attended the U.S.  U.S. Naval War College between 1985 and 1986 where he received an M.A. degreed.

Alexander began his overseas assignments as Vice Consul in Georgetown, Guyana from 1970 to 1973. He then served as an Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Norway from 1973 to 1975. Alexander was next assigned to be Consul in Krakow, Poland but he claimed the office had a hostile working environment and left this post nine months before his normal tenure would have ended.

While waiting for another assignment, Alexander worked in the State Department’s Visa office. In 1978, Alexander finally landed another overseas assignment, this time as the Program Officer for Mexico in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics Matters.  He held that post until 1980. His next assignments were as the Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy at Madrid, Spain, 1981-1983, and Principal Officer at Porto Alegre, Brazil from 1983 to 1985.

From 1986 to 1989 Alexander was Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy. He served as Deputy Director for Caribbean Affairs at the Department of State for the next two years (1989-1991).  He was then assigned by the State Department to be Deputy Chief of Mission and then Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti from 1991 to 1993.

Leslie Alexander has received State Department’s Meritorious, Superior and Senior Performance Awards.  His languages are Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, and Norwegian. Ambassador Alexander is now retired in Florida and married to Deborah McCarthy, a career Foreign Service Officer. The couple have two daughters, Margaret and Natalia.

Again thank you for listening and please look forward to my next episode of honoring our own.

Up next,, Sylvia Stanfield, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, and U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America

Till then be blessed and safe

This is a series of profoundly gifted members of our community that have contributed much with no or little public recognition. We honor our own Today we share, Sylvia Stanfield.

Sylvia Stanfield, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, took up her post as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America  to Brunei in November 1999. She was appointed by President William J. Clinton,  July 1, 1999.  

Brunei, officially the State of Brunei Darussalam, is a sultanate (pop. 295,000), in northwest Borneo, in two coastal enclaves surrounded by Malaysia. A British protectorate after 1888, Brunei was granted self-government in 1971 and became independent in 1984. 

Ambassador Stanfield was born October 28, 1943, in Harris, Texas. She earned a B.A. degree from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio 1965. As an East-West Center grantee, she received an M.A. degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii and continued her studies at the University of Hong Kong School of Oriental Studies and Linguistics in Chinese.   

Her primary area of specialization has been Asian Affairs. She began her career with the Department of State in 1968. Her first overseas assignment was Vice Consul with the then American Embassy in Taipei, Taiwan. 

 Her assignments have included tours as a political officer with the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Ambassador Stanfield has served as a Watch Officer in the Department of State Operations Center, as a political and economic/commercial officer in the Office of the Peoples Republic of China and Mongolian Affairs. She is a Chinese Language officer. 

Ambassador Stanfield has also been an Inspector with the Office of the Inspector General and served as an Examiner with the Board of Examiners of the Foreign Service. From 1990-1993, she was Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand of Australia and Charge d’Affaires a.i.for New Zealand Affairs. From 1997-1998 she headed the Taiwan Coordination Affairs Office.  

Selected to attend the Department of State’s Senior Seminar, Ambassador Stanfield is a member of the forty-first class of 1998-1999. 

After her ambassadorship ended, Ambassador Stanfield became a Diplomat in Residence at Florida A&M University and at Spelman College. She is on the executive committee of  the Association of Black American Ambassadors (ABAA).  In August 2014  she was nominated to be  the interim President of Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA). We look forward to seeing what she creates next for herself.

Thank you for listening and next episode will be honoring Gayleatha Brown, the United States ambassador to Burkina Faso.

Be Blessed and safe