Deborah-Mae Lovell, a career Antiguan and Barbudan diplomat, presented her credentials as ambassador to the United States on March 8, 2005. Lovell has twenty-five years of experience in the Antigua and Barbuda Foreign Service. She entered the Foreign Service in 1983 as a Third Secretary in the High Commission for Eastern Caribbean States in London. She worked her way through the ranks, holding several positions including Acting High Commissioner in the Antigua and Barbuda office in Ottawa, Canada, where she headed the Mission for three years. She also held the post of Minister Counselor in the Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda in Washington, D.C., as well as in the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations in New York. Lovell is dually accredited as Ambassador to the United States and as Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS).