[1] Anne E. Derse completed her Bachelor of Arts in French and Linguistics from Macalester College[2] in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1976 and her Master of Arts in international relations from Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1981.

Derse is married to fellow (now retired) foreign service officer E. Mason "Hank" Hendrickson.

From 1985 to 1988 she followed her husband to Singapore, where he served as First Secretary of the United States Embassy in Singapore there; however, he was expelled by the Singaporean government in May 1988 for his alleged involvement with opposition politicians Francis Seow and Patrick Seong, in an incident which came to be known as the "Hendrickson affair".

In late 2004 she assisted in establishing the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, serving there as Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs.

[5] On June 4, 2009, it was announced that Derse would be appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as ambassador to Lithuania.