Hegardt was labour counsellor there in 1977, State Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry from 1978 to 1979 and from 1981 to 1982 and was deputy state secretary for foreign affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1980 to 1981.
[3] Hegardt was a member and expert in several government commissions and agencies in the field of labour market, foreign trade, social policy, education policy and the same in joint bodies and the labor market partners.
She was the Swedish representative in various OECD bodies, the Industrial Development Board and in Nordic collaboration and more.
[4] In 1989, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from California Lutheran University (CLU) for her contributions as a foreign servant in Europe and the United States.
[1][5] Hegardt, who served as CLU’s first Diplomat in Residence informally for two months during the spring 1998 semester, returned to California Lutheran University for the spring 1999 semester, teaching a course titled “Europe in Transition: Economic, Political and Cultural Dimensions of European Integration” and conducted a series of campus colloquia and lead discussions as a guest lecturer in graduate and undergraduate classes.