Ms. Slater’s time working for the Department of State has spanned across the globe starting in 1980 at Embassy Maputo to soon being the Dean of the School of Applied Information Technology at the Foreign Service Institute.  Lizzie was born and raised in Africa, where her first Information Technology job was managing Durban’s first computerized medical accounting business.  She joined the Foreign Service family in 1980 taking jobs in Embassies in Mozambique, Mauritius, Grenada, and Malawi before joining as a direct hire.  Her career took her to Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, Washington, Thailand, Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, and Egypt changing career tracks in 1998 to the Information Technology field.

Lizzie has survived cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, rocket attacks, and the bombing of the Embassy in Dar es Salaam.  Despite being severely injured in that bombing, she stayed on to reconstruct an operating embassy and its communication systems, before transferring to Nairobi (the other bombsite) to do the same there.  She is the recipient of the Department’s prestigious “Thomas Morrison Information Technology Award” for her work in Afghanistan. During her two-year stint in Iraq, she was the lead for the transition of communications assets from the U.S. Military to the Department requiring extensive travel throughout Iraq during the war.

Lizzie is married to retired Foreign Service Officer Charles Slater, and they have a son, Forbes.  She enjoys golf, cooking, and visiting her far-flung family.