BIOGRAPHY Marcia Bernicat Ambassador, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau Term of Appointment: 06/16/2008 to present

As of June 16, 2008 Marcia Bernicat was sworn in as the latest ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.  Ambassador Bernicat was nominated by President Bush on December 12, 2007.

Former Director of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives & Bhutan, Marcia Bernicat has served overseas in Barbados, Malawi, Morocco, India, France and Mali; and in the Department of State as Human Resources Senior Level Division Chief, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, Nepal/India Desk Officer and in the Operations Center since joining the Foreign Service in 1981. She was an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia in 1979.
 
A New Jersey native, Ms. Bernicat has a Bachelor of Arts in History from Lafayette College and worked for Procter and Gamble before earning a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1980. She studied South Asian Affairs at the University of California, Berkeley. Her languages are French, Hindi and Russian. Most importantly, she is the mother of two fourteen year old sons. Olivier Bernicat is from Marseille, France.