Heflin joined the Foreign Service in 1987 and was first posted to Lima, Peru and then, in 1990, to Madras, India. In 1992, Heflin was moved to be deputy principal officer in Hermosillo, Mexico and the next year, in his first African posting, he was assigned to the embassy in Lusaka, Zambia as consul.[1]
In 1999, Heflin was again posted overseas as a consul in the embassy in London, United Kingdom, staying there until 2004, when he returned to the U.S. to work as deputy director for the Office of West African Affairs. While in that post, Heflin worked as acting Director for a time.[1]
Heflin returned to Mexico in 2009 to work as principal officer and Consul General in Nuevo Laredo. Heflin left Mexico for another stint in Washington in 2012, when he started as the managing director of the Consular Affairs Visa Office. He remained in this post until he was nominated for the ambassadorship for Cape Verde in June 2014.[3]
Heflin left the post in early September 2018 and was succeeded by Marissa Scott as Chargée d'affaires and in 2019 by Jeff Daigle, the new U.S. Ambassador.[8][9][10][11] Heflin later served as Minister-Counselor for Consular and Consulate Affairs in Mexico, overseeing the nine American Consulates in the country, as well as Chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India.
