Butenis joined the
U.S. Foreign Service in 1980 and served consular tours in
Karachi, Pakistan;
San Salvador, El Salvador;
New Delhi, India; and
Bogotá, Colombia. As the deputy
chief of mission at the
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2007 to 2009, Butenis won the State Department's Baker-Wilkins Award as the Outstanding Deputy Chief of Mission (2008). She was deputy
chief of mission at the
U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, and after that, the
U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh from April 13, 2006 to June 23, 2007. From 2009 to 2012, Butenis was the
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the
U.S. Ambassador to the Maldives. Butenis' final career assignment was as the Dean of the School of Professional and Area Studies in the
Foreign Service Institute. Butenis sparked controversy in Sri Lanka in late 2009 when
leaked diplomatic cables sent by her on verifying the accountability of
war crimes that allegedly happened in the final stages of
Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) became public. ==References==