Ambassador Kathleen Doherty

After a distinguished career with the U.S. Department of State, Ambassador Kathleen Doherty left the agency as a dean of the Foreign Service Institute, the State Department’s premier training facility for U.S. diplomats. From September 2015 to February 2019, she was the U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus. Kathleen Doherty joined the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands’ senior leadership team in February 2020 as Chief Strategy and Retreats Officer.

Ambassador Doherty has served in senior leadership positions in the U.S. Embassies in Rome, Moscow, and London, and in Washington, DC. Earlier in her career, she served in Brazil and the Dominican Republic. In her career, she has promoted democratic and economic reform, the empowerment of women, and engagement with youth; built strategic partnerships; negotiated international agreements, and led teams in times of major change. When serving as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe, she received one of the State Department’s highest awards for her work on relations between the United States and the European Union, and has received more than a dozen other State Department awards.

Ambassador Doherty has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she speaks nearly fluent Italian, and some Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. Prior to joining the State Department, she worked as a journalist.