Kelly C. Degnan

Kelly C. Degnan is a U.S. diplomat currently serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to the U.S. Mission to Italy in Rome, Italy.

Kelly graduated from the University of Southern California Law Center and practiced law in California and Micronesia for eight years before joining the State Department. She holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Prior to becoming the DCM in Italy, Kelly Degnan served on Secretary of State Kerry’s staff as a Deputy Executive Secretary from February 2014 to September 2015. Prior to returning to Washington, Kelly served as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Pristina in Kosovo, a mission with six agencies and over 100 Direct Hire American employees. She moved to Embassy Kosovo from the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels, where she was the Political Advisor for three years.

In addition to her tours at Embassy Pristina and USNATO, Kelly served overseas in eastern Afghanistan, Turkey, Italy, Botswana, and Pakistan since joining the Foreign Service in 1993. She also served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Special Assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs during her previous tours in Washington.

Kelly speaks Italian, French, Turkish, Urdu, and her mother tongue, English.