Consul General

On July 31, 2008, Ms. Beth A. Payne began her assignment as U.S. Consul General in Kolkata, India.  She is a career Foreign Service Officer who joined the U.S. State Department in 1993.  Her previous assignments include postings at the U.S. Embassies in Senegal, Rwanda, Israel and Kuwait.  In 2003, she opened the Office of the U.S. Consul in Baghdad, Iraq.  She also served in the Office of Children’s Issues in the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Payne received a M.S. in National Security Studies from the National War College in 2008; a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law in 1988; and a B.S. in Special Education from Pennsylvania State University in 1985.

In 2003, she received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for saving the arm of a fellow Foreign Service Officer after a hotel bombing in Baghdad.  She was also named the State Department’s Consular Officer of the Year in 2004 in recognition of her work in Iraq.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Payne worked as a staff attorney for the National District Attorneys' Association's National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse.  Ms. Payne is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Tunisia, where she taught special education in the desert town of Kebili.  Ms. Payne is a native of Pennsylvania.  She speaks fluent French and some Arabic and Hebrew.