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Name: DeLisi, Scott
Current Position: Previous Ambassador
A career Senior Foreign Service Officer whose career has included several postings in Southern Asia will be the next ambassador to the small Himalayan nation of Nepal. President Barack Obama nominated Scott H. DeLisi to the post on November 17, 2009, subject to Senate confirmation. A native of Minnesota who grew up in South St. Paul, DeLisi earned a B.A. in 1977 and a J.D. in 1980, both from the University of Minnesota. Nepal, a landlocked country sandwiched between large powers India and China, has recently emerged from a decade long civil war, and became a republic in 2008.
DeLisi joined the State Department Foreign Service in June 1981, having seen an ad in the Wall Street Journal announcing the Foreign Service exam. For his first overseas assignments, he served as Consular Officer at the American Consulate General in Mumbai, India, from February 1982 to August 1983, and as Economic Officer at the American Embassy at Antananarivo, Madagascar, from September 1983 to May 1984. Returning stateside, DeLisi served as Desk Officer at the Office of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from September 1984 to July 1986, and as Liaison to the Defense Intelligence agencies in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research from July 1986 to July 1989. The year following this introduction to intelligence work reveals a curious gap in DeLisi’s publicly known activities, followed by three overseas postings of gradually increasing responsibility in the “political cone” of the Foreign Service. DeLisi served as Political Officer at the Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, from July 1990 to July 1993, and then as Chief of the Political Section at the Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 1993 to July 1997. In August 1997, DeLisi became Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy in Gaborone, Botswana, a position he held through July 2001. Returning to Washington, DC, he served as Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs from August 2001 through June 2004. He served as Ambassador to Eritrea from August 2004 to July 2007, where he became well known for his open criticism of the authoritarianism and human rights violations of the one party regime of President Isaias Afewerki. After Eritrea, DeLisi took two personnel positions, as Director of Career Development and Assignments, Entry Level Division, from July 2007 to April 2008, and as Director of Career Development and Assignments from April 2008 to November 2009, when President Obama nominated him to be ambassador to Nepal.
DeLisi is married to Leija DeLisi. They have three children, Joseph, Anthony and Tjiama. Neither DeLisi nor his wife have made political donations over the years.
Called to Serve: Six Alumni Make a Difference from Six Embassies Around the World (Cathy Madison, Perspectives)
