Deputy Chief of Mission
Deputy Chief of Mission Louis Mazel
Louis Mazel, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Singapore, is a career Foreign Service Officer who joined the State Department in 1984. His most recent position was as Director of the Office of African Regional and Security Affairs in Washington from 2007-2010. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia from 2005-2007.
Mr. Mazel has served most of his career in the field with postings as Public Affairs Officer and Deputy Principal Officer in Cape Town, South Africa; Political/Economic Chief in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Political Officer in Windhoek, Namibia; Regional Refugee Coordinator in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Economic/Commercial/Consular Officer in Lome, Togo; Political/Economic/Public Affairs Officer in Fort-de-France, Martinique, and as General Services Officer in Bamako, Mali. He has served in Washington as a Southeast Asia Program Officer in the Bureau of Refugee Affairs.
Mr. Mazel has spoken widely in the U.S. and Africa on U.S. foreign policy priorities and security interests in Africa, on U.S. politics and elections, and on democratization and elections in Africa. In the lead-up to the 2005 national elections in Liberia, Lou spoke to numerous youth and civil society audiences in that country on the need to conduct free, fair, transparent, and peaceful elections after almost 15 years of civil strife in the country, and on the importance of accepting the results of the vote.
He is the recipient of the State Department's first-ever Worldwide Democracy and Human Rights Award for his work on curbing sexual and domestic violence in Namibia and numerous other Department Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards.
Lou is an avid follower of Olympic sports and has attended six Olympic Games. He served as a commentator on Namibian television during the 1996 Atlanta Games and for the World Athletics Championships. He also enjoys reading, travel, ethnic foods, baseball, camping, volleyball, and other sports.
Lou is married to DeeDee Smith, a former math teacher in international schools who has worked in Consular Affairs for the past 11 years. She also enjoys competitive sports and has run numerous races in Malaysia, Africa, and the U.S. DeeDee has also participated in the Borneo Triathlon twice.