United States Chargé d’Affaires
Maura Connelly
Ms. Connelly was born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was selected to be a Page in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1975 and graduated from the Capitol Page School two years later. She attended Georgetown University, where she received a Bachelor's degree in the Science of Foreign Service in 1981. She later attended the Naval War College, where she was granted a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs in 2001.
Ms. Connelly joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and her first assignment was at the Consulate General in Johannesburg, South Africa as a Consular Officer. In 1988-90 she served in Algiers as a Political Officer, and as Acting Head of the Political Section for nearly one year. Her next posting was in 1990, where served in Washington as a Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Gulf War.
Ms Connelly then pursued two years of Arabic language (1991-93) training, where her linguistic skills were awarded formal recognition. She then moved to the Consulate in Jerusalem (1993-96), to serve as the Political Section Chief. In 1996, Ms. Connelly won the Director General’s Award for her reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
From 1996-97, she returned to Washington and served as in a newly created position designed to support the U.S./Egypt Partnership for Economic Development, coordinated inter-agency efforts to expand and improve our bilateral relationship with Egypt. In 1997, Ms. Connelly returned to the Middle East, serving in Amman as the first Refugee Coordinator where she monitored U.S. government contributions to two regional organizations operating in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.
After her attendance at the National War College, Ms. Connelly was assigned in 2001 to the United States Mission to the UN, where she held the position of Deputy Counselor for Political Affairs. This was followed by her return to the Middle East in 2003-05, to be the Deputy Principal Officer at our Consulate General in Jerusalem. She served at the U.S. Embassy in London as the Minister Counselor for Political Affairs from 2005-08. Ms. Connelly took up her position in Damascus in August, 2008.
Ms. Connelly speaks French and Arabic.