Her Excellency Dr. Paulette A. Bethel is a global citizen with a wide range of experience as an educator, diplomat and negotiator. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1980 and obtained her M.A. and B.A. from Howard University and the University of Toronto, respectively. Ambassador Bethel also holds a Certificate for Creative Processes Facilitation, as well as a Certificate for International Negotiations: Practical Skills and Techniques.

In 1976, Dr. Bethel lectured in Sociology for the Social Sciences Department at the College of The Bahamas (COB). She was subsequently appointed Chairperson of that Department in 1977 in which capacity she served for one year. 

Ambassador Bethel began her career in international affairs in 1980 when she was employed by the United Nations as Assistant Social Affairs Officer in the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs (CSDHA) in Vienna, Austria. In 1983, after joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was accredited as Deputy Chief of Mission/Minister Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to the United Nations. She was subsequently posted to Washington D.C, in 1988, as Deputy Chief of Mission/Minister Counsellor with dual accreditation to the White House and to the Organization of American States (OAS). 

After many years in the Foreign Service of her country, Dr. Bethel continued her work in the international arena, taking on the post of Director of the Department of Fellowships, in 1994, at the OAS becoming the first Bahamian national to hold a senior-level position in that Organization. 

Upon relocating to The Bahamas in 1997, Dr. Bethel was employed in the private sector in the area of international financial and corporate services dealing with risk management and compliance issues.

In 2003, Dr. Bethel was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to the United Nations and presented her credentials to then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 4, 2003. She is the first female Ambassador of The Bahamas to the United Nations.

Dr. Bethel’s keen interest in global governance and global democracy has evolved as a natural outcome of her formal education in the field of Sociology, combined with her wide range of experiences on the global stage as both a diplomat and international civil servant.

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