Kennedy, Caroline – Commonwealth of Australia – January 2022

UNITED STATES SENATE

SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of
Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service
Act, Section 304(a)(4)

POST: Commonwealth of Australia

CANDIDATE: Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy is a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and a prolific author and respected lecturer. Ambassador Kennedy is currently Honorary President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a Trustee of the Carnegie Corporation, a Director of the United States-Japan Foundation and on the Board of Advisors of the International Rescue Committee. Ambassador Kennedy’s broad understanding of U.S. and international politics, her demonstrated success as a diplomat in the Indo-Pacific region, and her life- long commitment to public service make her a well-qualified candidate to be Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia.

For over a decade Ambassador Kennedy was at the forefront of New York City public school reform efforts, serving as Vice Chair of the Fund for Public Schools, Chief Executive of the Office of Strategic Partnerships, and on the Board of Directors New Visions for Public Schools. Upon her return from Japan, she founded the International Poetry Exchange Program in association with The DreamYard Project, a leading arts organization in the Bronx, New York.

Ambassador Kennedy is the author/editor of eleven best-selling books on law, poetry, civics and history. She has served on the Board of Directors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Commission on Presidential Debates, and Cities of Service. Additionally, she was a Director of The Boeing Company, Co-Chair of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Harvard Institute of Politics, and a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Asia Society. Earlier in her career, Ambassador Kennedy was a Freelance Columnist for Time Magazine and a Coordinating Producer in the Office of Film and Television at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ambassador Kennedy earned a B.A. in Fine Arts at Harvard University in 1980 and a J.D. at Columbia University Law School in 1988, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She also studied at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, England.