Kelly Adams-Smith Adjunct Professorial Lecturer SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security

Degrees: AM Harvard University, BA American University
Bio: Kelly Adams-Smith is a Visiting Practitioner in the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security/School of International Service at The American University in Washington, D.C. She is a career diplomat in the U.S. Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor. Her last position was Ambassador-nominee to the Republic of Moldova.

From 2021-2024, Ms. Adams-Smith served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium. Previously she served as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic, and was Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in London. From 2011-2013 she served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the White House National Security Council. Other diplomatic postings include Bulgaria, Estonia, and Russia and assignments at the Department of State headquarters in Washington, D.C. From 2019-2021 she was a faculty member of the National War College.

A New Jersey native, Ms. Adams-Smith entered the Foreign Service after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from American University in Washington, D.C., and Harvard University and serving as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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