Ambassador to Barbados and Eastern Caribbean: Who Is Larry Leon Palmer?

The United States will soon have a new ambassador to the Caribbean island nations of Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, and St Vincent and The Grenadines.                                                                                                                     

President Barack Obama nominated Senior Foreign Service member Larry Leon Palmer on November 1, 2011. If confirmed, Palmer will be the first Foreign Service officer to serve in this post since President Jimmy Carter sent Frank V. Ortiz, Jr., in 1977.

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The son of a minister, Palmer was born in Augusta, Georgia, and graduated from T.W. Josey High School as valedictorian in 1966. He earned a scholarship to Emory University and graduated with a B.A. in history in 1970.                                                                                                                

Shortly after graduating from Emory, Palmer joined the Peace Corps and served as a volunteer in Liberia from 1971 to 1973, teaching high school biology, science, chemistry, physics and American literature.                           

Back in the U.S., he received an M.Ed. in African History at Texas Southern University in 1973, and then began an academic career as assistant director of financial aid at the University of Virginia from 1973 to 1974.                         

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