Charisse Phillips joined the Foreign Service in 1986 after working at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, with her subsequent postings including Madrid, Spain; Hamburg, Germany; and San Salvador, El Salvador. Phillips completed an assignment as minister counselor for consular affairs in New Delhi, India. Before that, she served as senior advisor for hostage affairs in the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the United States Department of State. She served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Guatemala City from 2014 to 2017 and as the deputy principal officer in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2011 to 2014. Other postings include assessor in the Office of the Board of Examiners; consul general in Lima, Peru, and in Vienna, Austria; and director of the Office of Fraud Prevention Programs.
On August 26, 2020, she arrived in La Paz as the chargé d'affaires to Bolivia.[2] She headed the Presidential Delegation to the inauguration of Luis Arce on November 8 and expressed optimism in bilateral relations with the Arce administration despite "differences."[3][4] On December 10, 2020, Phillips met with Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta and discussed rapprochement between the two countries and the building of a "respectful relationship between our countries and expanding business opportunities."[5]