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David McKean

Contact Information:

maxwellindc@syr.edu

David McKean

Adjunct Professor, Maxwell in Washington, D.C.


Highest degree earned

Juris Doctor, Duke University

Bio

David McKean is an American attorney, author, political advisor and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from 2016 to 2017. He was confirmed to the position in 2016 and sworn in on March 14, 2016. He previously held the position of director of policy planning at the United States Department of State from 2013 to 2016 under John Kerry.

Before joining the Department of State, McKean was a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2011 and 2012. He previously worked as CEO of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, staff director for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (2009–2010), and chief of staff to Senator John Kerry (1999–2008).

McKean also served as minority staff director of the United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (1997–1998), deputy chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Campaign Finance Investigation (1997), and Special Counsel to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (1995–1997). Prior to that, he served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II (1994–1995) and Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator John Kerry (1987–1992). McKean taught at the Waterford Kamhlaba in Eswatini (1981–1982). Since 2006, he has served as a board member for the National Archives Foundation.