During 38 years in the Foreign Service, Ambassador (ret.) Al LaPorta served as ambassador to Mongolia, political adviser to the commander of NATO forces in Southern Europe, executive director to the special envoy for the Multilateral Assistance Initiative and director of the Office of Cambodian Genocide Investigations. He earned a B.A. from Georgetown University and master’s degrees from New York University and the National War College.

Since retiring in 2003, Amb. LaPorta chaired the South- east Asia area studies course at the Foreign Service Institute, serves part-time in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and is a consultant on Asian affairs to the U.S. Pacific Command in Honolulu, Hawaii. Since 2009 he has advised the Joint Staff/J7 and the U.S. Africa Command, headquartered in Germany, regarding military exercise pro- grams. In 2008-2009, he served as chief of party for Development Alternatives International on a USAID project to advise the foreign ministry in Pristina, Kosovo.

Amb. LaPorta served as president of AFSA in 1997, and served as State vice president before that. He was first elected as a retiree representative in 2015.