Caroline Kennedy, American lawyer and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Japan
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author, attorney, and diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017. A prominent member of the Kennedy family, she is the only surviving child of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Caroline was almost six when her father was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The following year, Jacqueline Kennedy and her children, Caroline and John Jr., moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where Caroline attended school. Kennedy graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University and worked at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she met her future husband, exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg. She later earned a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School. Most of Kennedy's professional life has been in law, politics, education reform, and charitable work. She has also acted as a spokesperson for her family's legacy and co-authored two books with Ellen Alderman on civil liberties.
Early in the primary race for the 2008 presidential election, Kennedy and her uncle, Ted Kennedy, endorsed Democratic candidate Barack Obama. She later stumped for him in Florida, Indiana, and Ohio, served as co-chair of his Vice Presidential Search Committee, and addressed the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.After Obama selected United States senator Hillary Clinton to serve as secretary of state, Kennedy expressed interest in being appointed to Clinton's vacant Senate seat from New York, but later withdrew from consideration for personal reasons. Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand ultimately replaced Clinton as the junior New York senator. In 2013, President Obama appointed Kennedy as the United States ambassador to Japan. In 2021, President Biden nominated Kennedy to be the next United States ambassador to Australia, pending Senate confirmation.