Katherine Hubay Peterson Canavan is a United States diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

 and career foreign service officer

Foreign Service Officer

A Foreign Service Officer is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. As diplomats, Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic...

. As of August 2008, she serves as the Civilian Deputy to the Commander and foreign policy

Foreign policy

A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...

 advisor to Admiral James G. Stavridis, USN, Commander, United States European Command

United States European Command

The United States European Command is one of ten Unified Combatant Commands of the United States military, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Its area of focus covers and 51 countries and territories, including Europe, Russia, Iceland, Greenland, and Israel...

 in Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

From 2005–08 she served as United States Ambassador to the Republic of Botswana, while simultaneously serving as the Secretary of State’s Special Representative to the Southern African Development Community

Southern African Development Community

The Southern African Development Community is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states...

 (SADC). From 1996–98, prior to receiving her ambassadorial appointment, Ms. Canavan was the Managing Director of Overseas Citizen Services (OCS) in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, during which time OCS handled the evacuations of private American citizens in 12 countries. Her tour in OCS followed three years in Windhoek

Windhoek

Windhoek is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level. The 2001 census determined Windhoek's population was 233,529...

, Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

, as the Deputy Chief of Mission.

Ms. Canavan entered the Foreign Service in 1976, after serving nearly three years as a Peace Corps

Peace Corps

The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...

 volunteer in Zaire

Zaire

The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...

, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She spent the first three and a half years of her career in the Bureau of African Affairs, serving as a regional affairs officer, staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary, desk officer and press officer. In 1979, she transferred to Kingston

Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...

, Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, where she worked on the non-immigrant visa line and served as Chief of the NIV section.

Returning to the Department in late 1981, Ms. Canavan worked briefly in the Office of Caribbean Affairs before starting the five-month Mid-Level Course in February 1982. She then moved over to FSI’s Orientation Division where she was Deputy Coordinator and taught the A-100

A-100 Class

A-100 is the colloquial name given to the introductory/orientation training class for incoming Foreign Service Officers. These courses are taught in the Foreign Service Institute at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia...

 class and other orientation courses for two and a half years. From March 1985 to March 1987, she was the Division Chief for Latin America in the Office of Overseas Citizen Services, where her division focused on non-emergency services to Americans, including citizenship determinations. She also worked on task forces for the several terrorist aircraft and ship hijackings that took place during that period.

Building on her initial experience in OCS, Ambassador Canavan transferred to Tijuana

Tijuana

Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, as the Chief of American Citizen Services. As the most visited foreign city by Americans, Tijuana had nearly 20% of all the arrest cases worldwide. She left Tijuana in 1990 to take over the Junior Officer Division in the Office of Career Development and Assignments, and after two years in that position, was selected for senior training at the National War College (Class of ’93).

Ambassador Canavan received the Presidential Rank Award in December 2003 and throughout her career received numerous awards, including Senior Performance Pay, Superior Honor Awards, numerous Meritorious Honor Awards and holds the rank of Career Minister.

Ambassador Canavan was born in Southern California, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz

University of California, Santa Cruz

The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...

. She speaks French and Spanish.