Speaker: Ms. Kristin Kane, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Global Public Affairs
Topic: U.S. Foreign Policy and Messaging to the World
Bio: Kristin M. Kane is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) of the State Department’s Bureau of Global Public Affairs, GPA, as of May 2023. She is a Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister Counselor. Kristin most recently served as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Lisbon from 2019-2022 and then as Director of Policy at the Office of the Inspector General.
From 2016-2019, Kristin was the Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy Brasilia, where she oversaw the political affairs work of one of the largest U.S. Missions in the world, during the transitions between three Brazilian presidents. Before Brasilia, Kristin directed an African Affairs office located in Paris, Africa Regional Services. As Public Affairs Officer in Dakar, Senegal (also covering Guinea-Bissau); Maputo, Mozambique; and in Lagos, Nigeria, Kristin led large teams working on U.S. assistance programs -- from counter-terrorism funding (TSCTP), to PEPFAR (AIDS relief) to the Millennium Corporate Challenge (MCC).
In Washington, D.C., Kristin worked on policy, press, and Congressional issues in the Bureau of International Organizations. Early in her Foreign Service career, Kristin served in the Political-Economic and Consular sections at Embassy Lisbon.
Kristin is from Los Angeles and Monterey, California. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA), with distinction, from UC Berkeley and a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS), cum laude, from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School. Kristin currently speaks Portuguese and French. She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Fouta Djallon, Guinea) and has traveled through much of sub-Saharan Africa. She is married to Hamed Lamine Kane, an IT specialist also in the Foreign Service, and they have two young adult daughters, both in college.
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Thank you to Monica Church, BCFR member, for her connections with this speaker. PDAS Kane will be in Boise for her engagement with "Model United Nations" - sponsored by the Frank Church Institute at Boise State University.
