President Biden Announces Key Diplomatic and Agency Nominees.
December 15, 2021
Caroline Kennedy served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 2013-2017. She played a critical role in the commemoration of 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. She advanced the realignment of U.S. Forces in Okinawa, promoted women’s empowerment in Japan, and increased student exchange between the U.S and Japan.
In 2017, she founded the International Poetry Exchange Project to virtually connect students in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and the Bronx through the power of the spoken word. 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.
Prior to her time in Japan, Kennedy was at the forefront of education reform efforts in New York City, creating public private partnerships to promote arts education, school libraries, and performing arts spaces. She served as the CEO of the Office of Strategic Partnerships at the NYC Department of Education from 2002-2004, Vice Chair of the Fund for Public Schools from 2002-2010, and served on the Board of New Visions for Public Schools.
An attorney and author, Kennedy has published 11 New York Times best-selling books on law, civics, and poetry and serves as the Honorary President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. She is a Director of the Carnegie Corporation and a member of the Board of Advisors of the International Rescue Committee.