Vernelle FitzPatrick

Vernelle Trim FitzPatrick is a Career Member of the Department of State’s Foreign Service. Throughout her twenty-three year career, she has worked mostly on developing countries in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. She is currently the Director of the Office of Assistance to Africa in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

Prior to assuming her current position, Vernelle served as the Deputy Chief of Mission (and Chargé d’Affaires for eleven months) at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon. In Washington, she served as a Deputy Director in the Bureau of African Affairs’ Office of West African Affairs, and as the senior Ethiopia Desk Officer in the Office of East African Affairs. In earlier assignments, Vernelle served as the Political Section Chief in Ghana, as a Political Officer in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Suriname (where she also had responsibility for Public Diplomacy), and as a Consular Officer in Guatemala. She also worked on the Slovenia desk in the Office of North Central Europe in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Vernelle received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Davidson College in North Carolina and a Master’s in International Relations from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.