After college graduation Peterson accepted a position at the University of Rochester's Carlson Mathematics and Sciences Library. In 1988 she joined the university's Department of Chemistry. In 1989 Peterson joined the Foreign Service. She served in the embassy in the
Central African Republic, and after two years accepted a two-year assignment as vice consul at the U.S. Consulate General in
South Africa. Peterson then returned to the U.S. an analyst for
Bolivia,
Ecuador and
Peru in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. In 1996 she began a series of international assignments to
Kinshasa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo;
Lusaka,
Zambia, and
Nairobi, Kenya. In 2006 Peterson returned to the U.S. as deputy director of the Office of Central African Affairs in the
Bureau of African Affairs. In 2007 she returned to
Africa as the cultural officer in
Abuja, Nigeria. Two years later she became deputy chief of mission at the embassy in
Yaounde, Cameroon.
Ambassador to Eswatini Survivors and Advocates in July 2021. When she was nominated on November 16, 2015 to become
United States ambassador to Swaziland (now
Eswatini), she was Director of the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs in the
U.S. Department of State's
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, a position she had held since 2012.
Ambassador to Burundi On April 5, 2023, President
Joe Biden nominated Peterson to be the next ambassador to
Burundi. Hearings on her nomination were held before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 21, 2023. The entire Senate confirmed her nomination on May 2, 2024, by voice vote. She presented her credentials to
Évariste Ndayishimiye on June 27, 2024. ==Personal==