Linda Swartz Taglialatela (born October 22, 1949) is a diplomat and United States Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS . She was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate on December 9, 2015. On February 1, 2016, she presented her credentials to Sir Elliott Belgrave, Governor-General of Barbados.
Taglialatela was born Linda Swartz to Anne and Leon E. Swartz, a veteran and I.B.M. employee. She grew up in Broome County, New York. In 1967 she graduated from Vestal High School. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1971 at the State University of New York at Oneonta, where she was awarded a B.A. in Economics. She earned her M.B.A. from Virginia Tech.
Taglialatela began a career in the public sector in 1973 as a management analyst at the Government Accountability Office. She joined the Foreign Service in 1979. As part of her assignment in the Office of the Inspector General, she inspected dozens of embassies and consulates.
In 1987 Taglialatela accepted an assignment as at the embassy in Bern, Switzerland. Two years later she returned to Washington, D.C. to join the Office of Resource Management and Organization Analysis. In 2002 she became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Human Resources.
In 2016 she began her role as Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. By March 2016 she had begun touring her region and presenting her credentials.
She and her husband Carmine Taglialatela are divorced.