Kelly C. Degnan
Kelly Colleen Degnan is a longtime U.S. diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Georgia from January 31, 2020, to August 29, 2023. In September 2023, she became the Political Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, working with the nation’s top military leaders.
Degnan is a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. Before Georgia, she was the Political Advisor to the Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe and United States Naval Forces Africa. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission to the U.S. Mission to Italy and San Marino in Rome and acted as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim there from January to October 2017.
Her career includes posts in Kosovo, at NATO in Brussels as Political Advisor, and assignments in Afghanistan, Turkey, Botswana, and Pakistan, among other State Department roles. She joined the Foreign Service in 1993 and has received the Secretary of State’s Expeditionary Service Award and other honors.
Education and languages: Degnan earned a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California. She practiced law in California and spent five years providing legal counsel in Micronesia and Palau before joining the State Department. She speaks Italian, French, Turkish, Urdu, and Georgian.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:03 (CET).