Bernadette Meehan

Bernadette Meehan (born 1975) is the Chief International Officer for the Obama Foundation. She is a former American diplomat and former spokesperson for the United States National Security Council.[1]

Early life and education

Meehan was raised in Pleasantville, New York and graduated from Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers.[2] She attended Boston College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. After graduation she worked as a financial analyst on Wall Street, first as a Vice President at JPMorgan Chase in Private Banking and later as a Vice President of Asset Management at Lehman Brothers.[3] Although she enjoyed her career in finance, she was always drawn to foreign affairs.[4][5]

Career

Meehan joined the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in 2004, and began her new career as a Consular Officer at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia.[4] While assigned to Colombia, she survived a kidnapping by armed men in Bogota in April 2006.[6]

Meehan served in Colombia for two years before volunteering to serve in Iraq. She worked at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2006 to 2007 as a Consular Officer, and for several months as Special Assistant to Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.[4] While serving in Iraq she was wounded by a rocket fired by an Iran-backed militia.[7]

In September 2007 Meehan left Iraq to study Arabic at the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute in Virginia to prepare for her next tour as the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Her job in Dubai was three-fold: to explain U.S. foreign policy to the local population; to promote the culture of the United States; and to enable exchange programs between Americans and Emiratis, such as the Fulbright Program and International Visitor Leadership Program.[4]

Meehan was selected in 2007 as a Powell Fellow, recognized as one of the 12 most promising future leaders in the Department of State.[5]

In 2010 Meehan returned to Washington DC to work as a State Department Line Officer, advancing then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s overseas travel, as well as traveling with Clinton as a member of the “Plane Team” that prepared the Secretary of State's briefing papers on foreign trips. Meehan worked as a Line Officer for ten months when she was invited to become one of Clinton’s two Special Assistants.[4]

In 2012, Meehan joined the National Security Council, and in 2014 Meehan became the Spokeswoman for the National Security Council (NSC).[8] She oversaw the NSC's responses on issues ranging from Asia to Cuba, but specialized in the Middle East and was central to the White House's press strategy on the Iran nuclear talks.[9] Working with Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Meehan was central to the development of the White House's strategy for explaining the Iran nuclear deal to the public [10][11] and the President's actions to chart a new course in U.S. relations with Cuba.[12] Meehan justified the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen as having been requested by Yemen's exiled President Hadi.[13]

Meehan left the White House to become an adjunct professor and resident fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.[14] Halfway through her year at Georgetown, she was recalled to the White House National Security Council to oversee the planning for President Obama's historic trip to Havana, Cuba, drawing on her past experience working on the diplomatic opening with Cuba. According to The New York Times, her appointment to this position reflected the importance the President put on the trip and the complicated nature of planning the visit.[15]

Meehan now serves as the Chief International Officer at the Obama Foundation.[16] In this role she is responsible for developing and overseeing all international programs for The Obama Foundation, including the Obama Foundation Scholars[17] and the Leaders Africa program.[18] She previously served as the Foundation's Executive Director of International Programming.

Meehan serves on the Board of Advisors for Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, within the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The board represents a cross-section of distinguished individuals who, through accomplishments and standing in their career fields related to the mission of the Institute and the advancement and study of diplomacy, provide guidance on and support to the programs and activities of the Institute, and advise the director and staff on matters of policy and program development in order to strengthen the Institute.[19]

Personal

Meehan is married to Evan S. Medeiros, the former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the White House’s National Security Council (NSC) under President Obama, and current Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies at Georgetown University.

References
  1. O'Toole, Molly (5 February 2015). "White House Says Obama's New National Security Strategy a 'Compass' Through 'Shifting Security Landscape'". Defense One. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  2. "The gael fall 2015". Issuu.
  3. "Boston College Magazine » Winter 2013 » Linden Lane » Capital gains".
  4. Meehan, Bernadette (8 February 2012). "RealJobs: Bernadette Meehan". BC Affairs. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  6. Tiempo, Casa Editorial El (November 3, 2006). "Cárcel a dos hombres por 'paseo millonario' a vicecónsul de E.U." El Tiempo.
  7. Rhodes, Ben (2018). The World As It Is. Penguin Random House. p. 229. ISBN 9780525509356.
  8. Grim, Ryan (20 January 2014). "White House Dares Democratic Senators Pushing Iran Sanctions To Admit They Want War". Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  9. "NSC spokeswoman Meehan to depart in latest Obama press staff change". Politico. May 31, 2015.
  10. Dovere, Edward-Isaac; Crowley, Michael. "Obama's next job: Sell the Iran deal". POLITICO.
  11. "P033115PS-0781". March 31, 2015 – via Flickr.
  12. "P110614PS-0677". November 6, 2014 – via Flickr.
  13. "Saudi Arabia Gets Bipartisan Backing for Yemen Airstrikes". U.S. News. March 27, 2015. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015.
  14. "Georgetown Institute for the Study of Diplomacy".
  15. "White House and Cuba Maneuver Over Obama's Visit". The New York Times.
  16. "Obama Foundation Announces New Program to Train Emerging Leaders Across Africa". The Obama Foundation. April 23, 2018.
  17. "Coming to Columbia This Fall, Obama Foundation Scholars". The New York Times. June 28, 2018.
  18. "Setting Tone for Post-Presidency, Obama Will Speak in South Africa on Tolerance". The New York Times. April 23, 2018.
  19. "Board of Advisors". Georgetown University.
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