Mary Bliss

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USAID/Eastern and Southern Caribbean’s (ESC) Program Office Director

Mary Bliss is USAID/Eastern and Southern Caribbean’s (ESC) Program Office Director. She supervises all aspects of the program cycle including budget management, project design and implementation, the Mission's monitoring and evaluation system, and outreach and communication covering Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.

Prior to joining USAID/ESC, Ms. Bliss served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Central American and Mexican Affairs, Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean in Washington D.C. She previously served as a Program Officer for the Haiti Task Team and the Program Officer in Nicaragua where she served as the Mission’s backstop to the Deputy Chief of Mission on donor coordination and the designated gender focal point.

Ms. Bliss, a Fulbright Scholar, was selected by the U.S. Department of State as one of only 10 diplomats to be featured in the “Faces of Diplomacy” exhibit at the U.S. Diplomacy Center, a museum located at the State Department. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Bliss established a U.S. nonprofit organization that creates new health, education, and income-generating opportunities in West Africa through the provision of potable water systems, health care centers, schools, and solar energy and co-founded a solar business – featured in various publications. She was a featured speaker at the World Bank, Millennium Challenge Corporation, the United Nations Association, and various international conferences.

Bliss holds an MA from Monterey Institute of International Studies, a graduate school of Middlebury College, and a BA in Spanish from Bucknell University. Bliss has lived and worked in a variety of countries including China, Singapore, Mali, Spain, England, France, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Barbados, and Nicaragua. She speaks advanced Spanish and French and studied Mandarin in Shanghai. Ms. Bliss is a classical pianist, snowboarder, surfer, wakeboarder, dancer, and is trained in Praying Mantis martial arts.