Jim Hazeltine-Shedd: Insight into the Changing Role of Today’s Foreign Service IT Professional

Jim Hazeltine-Shedd, currently an Enterprise Coordinator in the Bureau of Information Resources Management with the U.S. Department of State, entered the Foreign Service in fall 2021 as an Information Management Specialist (IMS). His first tour in Zambia was in a small Embassy where he became the acting IMO only four months into the tour. Like “drinking from the fire hose,” Jim says, he had to do everything and he learned a lot.

Jim shares his insights into how the IT role in the Foreign Service is changing. There is a growing need for skills, such as communications, writing and project management, that will facilitate putting technology solutions into the hands of front-line diplomats to help them do their jobs. Since this interview, the IMS role has evolved into the Diplomatic Technology Officer (DTO) role to reflect those very changes that Jim discusses.

To read the article from this interview, click here.

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