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. Prior to her appointment, Albright served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and as a member of President Clinton's cabinet and National Security Council. In 2012, Albright received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Obama. Albright was born May 15, 1937, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her father, Josef, was a member of the Czechoslovak Foreign Service and served […]
Charlene Barshefsky
Charlene Barshefsky


Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky served as the U.S. trade representative (USTR)—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 August 11, 1950. She received her bachelor of arts in English and political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Barshefsky served under President Clinton as deputy U.S. trade representative. She has also served as vice-chair of the International Law Section […]
Carol Moseley Braun
Carol Moseley Braun


Carol Moseley Braun was a U.S. senator from Illinois from 1993 to 1998. She was the first black female 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. Braun was born on August 16, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in political science and then attended the University of Chicago Law School to obtain her juris doctor in 1972. In addition […]
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley


Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa Haley was confirmed as the 45th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on January 24, 2017. Previously, Haley served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, the first non-European-American and first female governor of South Carolina. She was the second Indian American governor to be elected in the United States. Born January 20, 1972, in Bamberg, South Carolina, Haley began keeping books for her family's clothing store at age 13. After high school, she completed a bachelor of science degree in accounting at Clemson University. […]
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 is a Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude graduate of Southern Methodist University, with a bachelor of arts in English and a bachelor of fine arts in journalism. She began her career as a television news reporter for […]
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 late President John F. Kennedy and the late First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Kennedy was born November 27, 1957, in Manhattan, New York. 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 […]
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane J Kirkpatrick


Jeane Kirkpatrick was the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1981 to 1985. Kirkpatrick was born on December 19, 1926 in Duncan, Oklahoma. She graduated from Barnard College in 1948 and received a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1968. She began her career as a faculty member at Georgetown University in 1967, becoming a full professor of government in 1973. Kirkpatrick became active in Democratic politics in the 1970s, working with the campaigns of presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey and serving […]
Mary 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 lifelong learning, both from the University of Iowa. […]
Madeleine Kunin
Madeleine Kunin


Madeleine Kunin is the first and only woman to have served as governor of Vermont and is the nation's only three-term woman governor, holding office from 1985-1991. Kunin is also the first female Jewish governor of any state. Kunin was born September 28, 1933, in Zurich, Switzerland, and moved to the United States as a child. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts and master's degrees in journalism from Columbia University and English literature from the University of Vermont. Before seeking elective office, she worked as a […]
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. After a tour of Europe with her mother and stepfather, Dr. Albert E. Austin, she became interested in the […]