The Hon. Linda E. Watt

US Ambassador (retired)

Former Chief Operating Officer, Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (retired)

Raleigh, NC

Linda Watt served as a U.S. diplomat for 29 years. A recognized expert on Latin America and a fluent Spanish speaker, she served as Ambassador to Panama from 2002 to 2005 and as Acting Ambassador to the Dominican Republic from 1997 to 1999. She also served in Nicaragua, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Russia, and Washington, DC. She was the Chief Operating Officer of The Episcopal Church from 2007 to 2011, overseeing the mission program, communications, development, financial, and operations staff of The Episcopal Church Center.

Linda has been a member of the Boards of Episcopal Relief and Development, Pro Mujer (a microfinance and human development organization), and the Adventures for the Mind Foundation.

In the Diocese of Utah, she was a General Convention deputy in 2016, a member of the Standing Committee, and a senior warden of her congregation. She recently served on the Church’s Task Force on Relations with the Church in Cuba. She was a deputy from the Diocese of Western North Carolina in 2022 and was the convener of The Episcopal Church’s Covenant Committee with IARCA (the Anglican Church in Central America). She is a certified spiritual director.

She was elected to her second term on The Church Pension Fund Board of Trustees in 2024.

She received an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico, a BA in History and Spanish from Vanderbilt University, and certification in spiritual direction.