Ambassador Deborah A. McCarthy is a nonresident fellow with the Transatlantic Security Initiative with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.  She is also a senior fellow in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University and producer of the podcast series “The General and The Ambassador: A Conversation.”

Most recently, McCarthy was a visiting fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Previously, she was the US ambassador to Lithuania from 2013 to 2016. She also served as the deputy ambassador at the US embassy in Greece and the US embassy in Nicaragua. In Washington, she was the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, deputy assistant secretary for narcotics and law enforcement, senior advisor for counterterrorism, and special coordinator for Venezuela. Her other diplomatic postings include consul general in Montreal, economic counselor at the US embassy in Paris, financial economist at the US embassy in Rome, and assignments in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. 

McCarthy received a BA in economics from the University of Virginia and a joint master’s in economics and foreign service from Georgetown University.