Ambassador Staples is an adjunct professor for diplomacy and development. He retired after twenty-six year career as a Foreign Service officer, achieving the rank of Career Minister. He served as Director General of the Foreign Service at the U.S. Department of State until summer 2007. Earlier Staples had been the Political Advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) at NATO in Belgium, U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, and Ambassador to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. In addition to those assignments, he served as a diplomat in Bahrain, Zimbabwe, the Bahamas, Uruguay and El Salvador. In 1995-96, he was a Nsational Security Affairs fellow at Stanford University. Prior to joining the State Department, Staples served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and as a manager in private industry at Proctor & Gamble. He currently serves as a commissioner on the Kentucky Human Rights Commission.