Ambassador Sylvia Stanfield joined the Institute’s students for dinner at the Washington offices of the law firm Epstein Becker and Green, PC to discuss opportunities to serve the country as members of the Foreign Service.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Ambassador Stanfield served as U.S. Ambassador to Brunei from November 1999 to September 2002.

From her official State Department bio: 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. 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 Director of the Office of Australia and New Zealand Affairs and from 1997-1998 she headed the Taiwan Coordination Affairs Office. Her most recent overseas assignment was as Charge d'Affaires a.i., and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand. She is a Chinese Language officer. She earned a B.A. degree from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. 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 recent years, she has served as Ambassador-in-Residence at Florida A&M University, where she met senior Darius Graham, whom she recommended to the Institute. Beginning this fall, she will be at Spelman College.