May Baptista is Consul General at the United States Consulate General in Recife, Brazil.  As a strategic leader, she focuses on building relationships to achieve greater democracy, security, and economic progress.  Throughout May’s career in the Foreign Service, she has positively impacted policy while serving in Colombia, Mexico, Germany, and Bolivia. May has also worked as a policy officer, division chief, and senior advisor in five Bureaus in the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC.

May is dedicated to cultivating networks across cultures and organizations and advised on diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility initiatives.  Notably, she was a member of the International Women’s Forum Leadership 2021-2022 Fellows class, for which she completed executive programs at INSEAD Business School in France and at the Harvard Business School. In addition, May was a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow, Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow at Princeton University, and an International Career Advancement Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Born in Hawaii and raised in California, May brings her experience and “Aloha Spirit” that harmonizes mind and heart to self and others and to achieving U.S. goals and initiatives.  She graduated with a Master of Science in resource strategy and national security from the National Defense University’s Dwight D. Eisenhower School. She served as President of the Eisenhower School’s chapter of Women in National Security (WINS-ES). She has a Master of International Affairs from the University of California, San Diego, and a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and economics from California State University, Long Beach.

May is proficient in the Portuguese, Spanish, Ilocano, and German languages.