Kelly Keiderling
{{Short description|American diplomat}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Kelly Ann Keiderling-Franz
|image = AmbassadorKellyKeiderling.jpg
|office = United States Ambassador to Uruguay
|president = Barack Obama
Donald Trump
|term_start = June 23, 2016
|term_end = June 29, 2019
|predecessor = Julissa Reynoso
|successor = Kenneth S. George
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1966}}
|birth_place = Dominican Republic
|death_date =
|death_place =
|alma_mater = Georgetown University
National Defense University
}}
Kelly Ann Keiderling-Franz (born 1966) is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Uruguay from 2016 to 2019{{Cite web |title=Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 172 |url=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2013-01-01/html/CREC-2013-01-01-pt1-PgS8628-2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216062525/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2013-01-01/html/CREC-2013-01-01-pt1-PgS8628-2.htm |archive-date=2017-02-16 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=GovInfo}} and has served as Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova since 2022.{{Cite web |title=Kelly Keiderling |url=https://www.osce.org/mission-to-moldova/head-of-mission |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221205128/https://www.osce.org/mission-to-moldova/head-of-mission |archive-date=2024-02-21 |access-date=2 September 2023 |website=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)}}
Early life and education
Keiderling was born in the Dominican Republic.{{Cite web |date=September 17, 2014 |title=Hispanic Heritage: Kelly Keiderling |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/hispanicheritage/231742.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201210836/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/hispanicheritage/231742.htm |archive-date=2023-02-01 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=U.S. Department of State}} Keiderling's father was in the U.S. Foreign Service and had met her Bolivian mother on his first international assignment in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Keiderling grew up primarily in Latin America and Portugal.{{Cite web |date=March 31, 2015 |title=Like Father, Like Daughter: An Interview with Kelly Keiderling |url=http://www.globaltiesus.org/news/exchangematters/201-like-father-like-daughter-a-conversation-with-kelly-keiderling |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126220942/http://www.globaltiesus.org/news/exchangematters/201-like-father-like-daughter-a-conversation-with-kelly-keiderling |archive-date=2019-01-26 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=Global Ties}}
Keiderling earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and later a master's degree from the National War College.
Career
File:Emb. Keiderling visita Maldonado (33595209323).jpg Enrique Antía on her visit to that Uruguayan city in 2017.]]
Keiderling joined the Foreign Service in 1988. Her U.S. assignments included ones as senior Panama desk officer, public diplomacy desk officer for the Caribbean, acting deputy director for Central American Affairs, strategic language issues coordinator in the Bureau of Human Resources, chief of staff in the Iraq Office, and principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Her foreign assignments have included serving as deputy chief of mission in Chișinău, Moldova. She has served as public affairs officer in Cuba, Botswana and Kyrgyzstan. Her other international assignments include ones in the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, and Zambia. In 2013, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro expelled Keiderling and two other U.S. diplomats from the country.
She was tapped by President Obama to become United States Ambassador to Uruguay in 2016 and was confirmed by the Senate later that year, on May 17.{{Cite news |date=April 28, 2016 |title=Congress nominations |url=http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/nominations |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506131538/http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/nominations |archive-date=2016-05-06 |work=The New York Times}}{{Cite web |date=May 17, 2016 |title=PN1054 — Kelly Keiderling-Franz — Department of State |url=https://www.congress.gov/nomination/114th-congress/1054 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509101217/https://www.congress.gov/nomination/114th-congress/1054 |archive-date=2023-05-09 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=Congress.gov}} She assumed her role on June 23, 2016.{{Cite web |date=July 6, 2016 |title=Ambassador Kelly Keiderling, United States Embassy: Montevideo, Uruguay |url=http://uruguay.usembassy.gov/kellykeiderlingbio2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817015829/http://uruguay.usembassy.gov/kellykeiderlingbio2.html |archive-date=August 17, 2016 |access-date=July 14, 2016}} Her appointment as ambassador ended on June 29, 2019.{{Cite web |title=Kelly Keiderling-Franz - People - Department History - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/keiderling-franz-kelly |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240524062125/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/keiderling-franz-kelly |archive-date=2024-05-24 |access-date=2019-08-07 |website=history.state.gov}}
From 2019 to 2021, Keiderling served as Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor at the US National War College.{{Cite web |title=AMB Kelly Keiderling |url=https://nwc.ndu.edu/About/Faculty/ArticleView/Article/1927210/amb-kelly-keiderling/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529181211/https://nwc.ndu.edu/About/Faculty/ArticleView/Article/1927210/amb-kelly-keiderling/ |archive-date=2024-05-29 |access-date=2 September 2023 |website=www.nwc.ndu.edu}} She assumed her role as Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova in October 2022.
Personal life
Keiderling is married to David Franz, also a foreign service officer, and they have two children. In addition to English, she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, French and Russian, as well as some Italian and Romanian.{{Cite web |date=March 10, 2016 |title=Statement of Kelly Keiderling |url=http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/031016_Keiderling_Testimony.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201192341/https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/031016_Keiderling_Testimony.pdf |archive-date=2023-02-01 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=U.S. Senate record}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-dip}}
{{s-bef|before=Julissa Reynoso}}
{{s-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to Uruguay|years=2016–2019}}
{{s-aft|after=Kenneth S. George}}
{{s-end}}
{{US Ambassadors to Uruguay}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keiderling, Kelly}}
Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Venezuela
Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Uruguay
Category:21st-century American diplomats
Category:American women ambassadors
Category:Georgetown University alumni
Category:American people of Bolivian descent
Category:American politicians of Bolivian descent
Category:Hispanic and Latino American diplomats
Category:National War College alumni
Category:Obama administration personnel