Elizabeth Bagley

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley (born July 13, 1952) is an American diplomat, attorney, political activist and philanthropist who had served the United States ambassador to Brazil in the Biden administration. She previously served as the United States ambassador to Portugal from 1994 to 1997.

Bagley was born the second child of eight children to Judge John D. Frawley and Rosemary Frawley. In 1974, Bagley graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Spanish from Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. She is a 1987 graduate of the Georgetown University Law School, where she obtained a Juris Doctor in international law. She also attended university and law school in France, Spain, and Austria, where she studied international trade law and public international law.

Bagley has served in four presidential administrations as a diplomat.

During the Carter administration, she served as Congressional liaison officer for The Panama Canal Treaties in the Department of State. Additionally, she was special assistant to Sol Linowitz, a top diplomat for President Jimmy Carter, for the Camp David Accords from 1979 to 1980. In the twilight of Carter's presidency, she was the Congressional liaison to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe from 1980 to 1981.

In the Clinton administration, she was appointed to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal from 1994 to 1997. She later served as senior advisor under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, where she established and headed the Office of Media Programming Acquisition for the newly independent Balkan states. She also served as a United States Senate liaison for NATO Enlargement.

As an international law attorney, she was adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington from 1991 to 1993.

In the Obama administration, she twice served as the special advisor for Secretary's Initiatives, and was appointed by President Obama as the U.S. Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2012. Prior to assuming those posts, she was the Special Representative for Global Partnerships in the Office of the Secretary of State.

President Joe Biden nominated Bagley to be the next United States Ambassador to Brazil on January 19, 2022. Hearings on her nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 18, 2022. The committee was deadlocked on her nomination on June 23, 2022. Her nomination was considered controversial as comments came to light that were linked to anti-Semitic tropes, including acknowledging Israel's capital of Jerusalem as "stupid." Her nomination was discharged from the committee by a unanimous consent on December 6, 2022. The United States Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote on December 14, 2022. On January 9, 2023, she was sworn into office by Vice President Kamala Harris. She presented her credentials to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on February 3, 2023.