Category: Ambassador

Madeleine Albright
Madeleine K Albright


Madeleine Korbel Albright served as U.S. secretary of state from January 23, 1997, to January 20, 2001, the first women to hold that position. Albright was born May 15, 1937, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her father, Josef, was a member of the Czechoslovak Foreign Service and served as press attaché in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and later became ambassador to Yugoslavia. The family immigrated to Denver, Colorado, after the communist coup in 1948, with Albright becoming a U.S. citizen in 1957. She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Wellesley College […]
Charlene Barshefsky
Charlene Barshefsky


Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky served as the U.S. trade representative—the chief trade negotiator and principal trade policymaker for the United States—from 1997 to 2001, and acting and deputy USTR from 1993 to 1996. Barshefsky was born on August 11, 1950. She received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Wisconsin in 1972 and her law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1975. Prior to serving as the U.S. trade representative, Barshefsky was the deputy U.S. trade representative from 1993 to 1997. Before […]
Carol Moseley Braun
Carol Moseley Braun


Carol Moseley Braun served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 1993 to 1999. She was the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate (and the only one until Kamala Harris was elected to the Senate from California in 2016), and was the first female senator from Illinois. Moseley Braun was born on August 16, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in political science in 1969 and obtained her juris doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in […]
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley


Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa Haley served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from January 2017 to December 2018. Previously, Haley served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, the first non-European American and first female governor of South Carolina and the second Indian American governor to be elected in the United States. Haley was a Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election, the first woman of color to be a major GOP presidential candidate and the first woman to win a state GOP presidential primary (D.C. and […]
Karen Hughes
Karen Hughes


Karen Hughes served as the under-secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs in the U.S. Department of State from 2005 to 2007. Hughes was born on December 27, 1956, in Paris, France, to American parents Patricia and Harold Parfitt, the last U.S. governor of the Panama Canal Zone. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in journalism from Southern Methodist University in 1977. She began her career as a television news reporter for KXAS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth. Prior […]
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy


Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an author, attorney and diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017. She is the daughter of the President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Kennedy was born November 27, 1957, in New York City. When Caroline was three years old, her father was sworn in as president of the United States. She was just short of her sixth birthday when her father was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In 1980, Kennedy earned a Bachelor of Arts from Radcliffe […]
Jeane J Kirkpatrick
Jeane J Kirkpatrick


Jeane Kirkpatrick was a foreign policy advisor under President Ronald Reagan and the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1981 to 1985. Kirkpatrick was born on November 19, 1926, in Duncan, Oklahoma. She received an associate’s degree from Stephens College in 1946, a bachelor's degree from Barnard College in 1948 and a master's and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1950 and 1968, respectively. Between her master's and Ph.D., Kirkpatrick was a research analyst with the Office of Intelligence Research at […]
Mary E Kramer
Mary E Kramer


Mary E. Kramer served as U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean from 2004 to 2006. Prior to serving as ambassador, Kramer served in the Iowa state Senate from 1990 to 2003. She was elected president of the Senate in 1997, becoming the first independently elected woman to fill the post. Kramer was born June 14, 1935, in Burlington, Iowa, and grew up in Iowa City. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in piano performance and a Master of Arts in education, both from the University of Iowa. For […]
Madeleine Kunin
Madeleine Kunin


Madeleine Kunin served as governor of Vermont from 1985-1991, the first and only woman to have served as governor of Vermont and the first Jewish governor of Vermont. Kunin was born on September 28, 1933, in Zurich, Switzerland, and moved to the United States as a child in 1940. She holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Massachusetts and a Master of Science from the Columbia School of Journalism. Before seeking elective office, she worked as a journalist and a college professor. Prior to serving as governor, […]
Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce


Clare Boothe Luce served as U.S. ambassador to Italy from 1953 to 1956, the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad. She also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1943 to 1947. Luce was born March 10, 1903, in New York City. Her original ambition was to become an actress and she briefly attended a school of the theater in New York City. She was also active in the suffrage movement as a young woman. She married George Tuttle Brokaw, a New […]