The new U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica says her interest in Central America stems from an aid mission she embarked on with relatives while a teenager living in Evansville.

Anne Slaughter Andrew says the six-week trip at age 16 to Honduras and Guatemala to distribute food and medicine to remote regions changed her perspective and lifetime ambitions.

"I was always interested in politics, but not Central America," Andrew told the Evansville Courier & Press. "But after that, when I was 16, my passion grew into a passion for politics, history and foreign policy.

"I was determined to return one day to Central America in the service of my country."

Andrew got her chance Dec. 24 when the Senate confirmed her as President Barack Obama's ambassador to Costa Rica.

"There are several ways Costa Rica was a great fit with my background," Andrew said. "Of greatest interest to the president, I believe, was I spent the last 25 years engaged in the environment and clean energy."

Andrew, whose husband, Joe Andrew, was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1999-2001, has worked as an environmental lawyer and is active with the Nature Conservancy. She is a member of the organization's President's National Advisory Council.

In 2004, Andrew co-founded a medical biotech consulting firm, the Anson Group, based in Carmel, and in 2007 she formed New Energy Nexus, a Washington energy consulting firm.

Andrew says her background is a "good fit" for Costa Rica, which created a conservation system that places more than 25 percent of the country into nature preserves and is a global model for reforestation and tropical conservation.

It is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2021.

Andrew, daughter Meredith, 16, and son Will, 15, have moved into the ambassador's residence in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Her husband is staying in their Potomac, Md., home and flying down many weekends.

Andrew said the transition to her new role and home has been easy.

"One of the things I've found out is the people of Costa Rica like to be called Ticos -- just like the people of Indiana like to be called Hoosiers."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.