Linda E. Watt, Ambassador to Panama from December 6, 2002, departed Panama in July 2005 for retirement after nearly 30 years of service with the Department of State. A career Foreign Service Officer, Ambassador Watt had served overseas in Managua, London, San Jose, Quito, Moscow, and Santo Domingo. She also served in Washington in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. She was Foreign Policy Advisor at U.S. Southern Command in Miami from 2001 to 2002.

Ambassador Watt was born in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in history and Spanish, and received a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico. She was a member of the State Department’s Senior Seminar from August 2000 to June 2001.

Ambassador Watt is married to Leo Duncan, a retired U.S. Foreign Service information management officer. She has two children, Senior Airman Thomas Crosby, and Laurie Crosby, a criminal justice major at Florida International University in Miami.

After her departure from Panama, Ambassador Watt and her husband, Leo Duncan, settled near St. George, Utah. She plans to assist organizations and businesses with interests in Latin America as well as speak and write on U.S./Latin American relations.

William Alan Eaton, who succeeded Watt as Ambassador, presented his credentials to Panamanian President Martin Torrijos on September 9, 2005.