Chargé d'Affaires, a.i. Katherine Elizabeth (Kemy) Monahan
Katherine (Kemy) Monahan is Chargé d’Affaires a.i. for Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. A member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor, she most recently served as Deputy Chief of Mission New Zealand, Cook Islands and Niue. In her 28 years in the Foreign Service, Ms. Monahan has served fourteen tours on four continents. Her previous assignments include: Director for East Asia at the White House National Security Council, Senior Advisor to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), USAID Senior Development Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union, Advisor to the World Bank for Africa, Treasury Deputy Financial Attaché in Tokyo, and Department of State Director for Japan, International Organizations Bureau Director of Economic and Development Affairs, Economic Counselor at Embassy Mexico, Deputy Executive Director of the Secretary of State’s Global Health Initiative, Consular Bureau Hague Adoption Chief and Economic Privatization Officer in Warsaw after the fall of the Berlin wall.
Before joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Monahan was a teacher and an economic analyst in Tokyo and an attorney in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the University of California College of Law (JD) and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (BSFS), a member of the Bar in California and Washington, and speaks Spanish, Japanese and some Polish. Ms. Monahan and her husband Mr. Joe Turi have traveled the world with their two sons, Joey and Tommy Turi.