Kimberly Harrington is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with over 20 years of diplomatic experience in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Most recently, Kim was Director for Israel and Palestinian Affairs at the National Security Council. Previously, she was Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Governance and Access in the Bureau of Energy Resources. From 2018 to 2020, she served as Political and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, including five months as acting Deputy Chief of Mission. She also served as Deputy Economic Counselor in Bogota from 2014-2018 and covered energy and mining issues. From 2011-2014 she worked as the political-military affairs officer in Jerusalem and served as political advisor to the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Since joining the Foreign Service in 2002, Kim has also served in overseas assignments in Manila, Cairo, and Tripoli. At the State Department, she worked as a staff assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. During a detail at the Pentagon, Kim worked as a Middle East advisor in the Joint Staff’s office of Strategic Plans and Policy (J-5) during the Arab Spring.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Kim received a Fulbright scholarship to Amman, Jordan. She was also an assistant producer for the Sunday morning political talk show The McLaughlin Group. Kim received a B.S. in International Politics from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and studied abroad at the American University in Cairo. During and after university, she worked as a researcher for several Washington, DC-based think tanks specializing in Middle East affairs. In 2021, she received a master’s degree in National Security and Resource Strategy with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
She speaks Arabic, Spanish, and Tagalog and is a 2004 recipient of the Matilda W. Sinclaire Award for excellence in the study of a hard language and its associated culture.