Ambassador Caroline Kennedy
AMBASSADOR KENNEDY HEADS TO AUSTRALIA
TRAVEL & CULTURE MAGAZINE
SUMMER/FALL 2022
Congratulations to Caroline Kennedy, the next Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Commonwealth of Australia.
Kennedy was nominated by President Joe Biden on December 15, 2021. Her hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee was on April 7, 2022; the Committee ruled in her favor on May 4; and she was confirmed by a U.S. Senate voice vote on May 5. She is expected to move into the Ambassador’s Residence in Canberra, Australia in the coming months.
U.S. Independence Day celebrations at the US Embassy in Canberra
Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne congratulated Kennedy on her appointment, stating that the Australia- United States alliance “has never been more central to the interests of both our countries. Australia looks forward to deepening cooperation to secure a stable and prosperous region.”
Daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Caroline is a veteran diplomat, having served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan during the Obama Administration, from 2013-2017. There she played a critical role in commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II culminating in the historic visits of President Obama to Hiroshima and Prime Minister Abe to Pearl Harbor. In November 2021, she was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun, the highest honor for which foreigners are eligible, for her efforts to strengthen the US-Japan alliance.
In addition to her diplomatic work, 64 year-old Kennedy is an accomplished attorney, author and community leader. She has published 11 New York Times best-selling books on law, civics, and poetry. She is Honorary President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a member of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Committee. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, she serves on the boards of the US-Japan Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the International Rescue Committee.