Anne E. Derse

Anne Elizabeth Derse (born 1954) is an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2006 to 2009 and Lithuania from 2009 to 2012.

Education and personal life Anne E. Derse completed her Bachelor of Arts in French and Linguistics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1976 and her Master of Arts in international relations from Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1981. She also graduated with distinction from the State Department's Economic and Commercial Studies program in 1989.

Derse is married to fellow (now retired) foreign service officer E. Mason "Hank" Hendrickson.

Career Derse joined the Department of State in 1981, and served in Trinidad and Tobago from 1981 to 1983. From 1985 to 1988 she followed her husband to Singapore, where he served as First Secretary of the United States Embassy in Singapore there; however, he was expelled by the Singaporean government in May 1988 for his alleged involvement with opposition politicians Francis Seow and Patrick Seong, in an incident which came to be known as the "Hendrickson affair".