 From 1974 to 1981, she served in the U.S. Embassies in Uruguay and Paraguay and Japan.In 1982 she returned to Washington, D.C., assigned to the State Department offices there, including an assignment as Deputy Director for Economics, which she held from 1984 to 1986.She then completed a two-year assignment as a Senior Seminar member at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, VA. She then returned to Japan, where she served from 1987 to 1990 at the Tokyo Embassy.