Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Donald Moore holding a Haitian adoptee
granted humanitarian parole.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, so consular work at Embassy Port-au-Prince is especially challenging. Proximity to the United States, combined with extremely difficult economic, social, and political conditions, creates strong emigration pressures that lead people to risk their lives attempting to travel to the United States using illegal means, often aboard dangerous vessels.

It was on Donald Moore’s watch as consul general, head of the Embassy Port-au-Prince consular section, that Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010, which brought tragedy and destruction on a massive scale, killing more than 230,000 people. Consular officers immediately began working to provide emergency services to Americans in the consular district. Foreign Service colleagues from posts near and far joined in the assistance effort. American and local staff slept in the office or in tents on the embassy grounds, dealt with minimal sanitation and hygiene facilities, ate military ready-to-eat meals, and worked 12 to 18 hours a day.

The evacuation of American citizens on U.S. military flights began two days after the quake and continued for more than a month until the resumption of commercial flights on February 19. The consular staff helped American citizens and Haitian adoptees evacuate Haiti in a round-the-clock undertaking. Moore’s staff not only helped organize the effort and coordinated with the U.S. military and Haitian national police, but also provided an empathetic ear to the many traumatized American citizens while firmly enforcing strict guidelines to determine eligibility for evacuation. They set up makeshift offices by the tarmac at the airport and ran a frenetically paced control room there. More than 16,400 Americans were able to leave Haiti in one of the largest evacuations ever managed by the U.S. Department of State.

Moore says the consular staff demonstrated a clear understanding of what the regulations allow, the ability to make solid, often difficult decisions, and excellent customer service skills even in the most trying of circumstances. “We are from the U.S. government and we are here to help” was right on target in this case, he adds.

The two main responsibilities for all consular officers are to assist American citizens and facilitate legal travel. The top priority for all consular officers worldwide is to protect American citizens. Consular officers provide a wide range of emergency services to Americans, including visiting them in jails and hospitals. They process passport applications, serve as notaries, and register births of Americans overseas. “We are in the business of public service to American citizens, no matter where they may be and regardless of the hour or the emergency,” explains Moore.

Moore with Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs
at the opening of the new embassy compound in Port-au-Prince.

Foreign Service personnel assigned to Haiti receive both hardship and danger pay. Beset as the country is by violence, instability, and crumbling infrastructure, travel to and from the embassy in Port-au-Prince and within many areas of town is restricted. American staff often travel in armored vehicles. Physical infrastructure—roads, water supply, electricity, and communications—has long been in bad shape, but was made significantly worse by the 2010 earthquake. Political unrest during recent years repeatedly triggered the evacuation of much of the U.S. staff, causing a tremendous backlog in visa applications that has made the work of the consular section even tougher.

The U.S. mission in Port-au-Prince is a large embassy comprising about 1,000 employees from 15 U.S. government agencies. The consul general manages the consular section and oversees the efficient delivery of services in Haiti. Moore is a member of the country team and reports directly to the deputy chief of mission. He supervises 15 Foreign Service officers, three family member employees, and 33 Locally Employed Staff. Moore makes customer service a top priority, noting that all visitors, both Haitian and American, will remember their experience with the consular section. “Often the most direct contact a foreigner has with an American is for a visa interview,” Moore explains. “The impression we give will have a lasting effect on how we are viewed as a people.”

Most mornings, Moore walks through each section of the consular office, checking in with staff and addressing personnel issues. He inquires about any American citizen emergency cases. He meets with his section heads each day and often participates in policy discussions at the country-team level.

Moore joined the Foreign Service in 1992. He has served at six posts in consular positions, including Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Tirana, Albania; and Washington, D.C. Moore was born in Fort Pierce, Fla. He has a B.S. in broadcast production and a J.D. from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He also has a master’s degree in international private law from the University of Paris. Before joining the Foreign Service, he served in the Judge Advocate General Corps with the U.S. Navy and as an assistant state’s attorney in Florida. Don speaks French, Italian, and Albanian. He has one son from a former marriage. While in Haiti, Moore was promoted to the Senior Foreign Service and received the 2009 Barbara M. Watson Award for Consular Excellence. After Haiti, he moves on to a second assignment to Italy, this time as consul general in Naples.

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