Dr. Diana Putman started as Mission Director in Timor Leste in August 2016 after serving for five years as Mission Director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  She was on a three-year detail to the U.S. Africa Command between 2008-2011 where she managed their health and humanitarian assistance activities and frequently served as the Senior Development Advisor.  She is a career senior Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since 1983. Diana has lived and worked all over Africa for over twenty-five years, starting in 1965 when she accompanied her family as a child.

Her first assignment with USAID overseas was in Indonesia between 1985-1988. Other official postings include Washington, D.C. where she worked with the Asia and Near East Bureaus, on the Newly Independent States Task Force, as Chair of the Democracy Working Group for the West Bank/Gaza Task Force, Tunisia, Tanzania, Kenya/Regional, and Jordan.  She also did post-doctoral research on reverse culture shock and gender issues in Japan.

Diana has three degrees in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College and a Masters in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. She speaks French, Indonesian and Swahili.