Donald F. McHenry

Donald F. McHenry served as the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 1979 until January 1981. In that capacity, he was a member of President Carter’s Cabinet. At the time of his appointment, he had been the US Deputy Representative to the UN Security Council since March 1977.

Ambassador McHenry is currently Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and International Affairs at Georgetown University and President of The IRC Group, LLC. He has studied, taught and worked primarily in the fields of foreign policy and international law and organizations. He joined the US Department of State in 1963 and served eight years in various positions related to US foreign policy. In 1966, he received the Department’s Superior Honor Award. In 1971, while on leave from the Department, he was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution and an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1973, after leaving State, he joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He represented the US in a number of international fora and as the US negotiator on the question of Namibia. Ambassador McHenry has taught at Southern Illinois, Howard, American and Georgetown Universities.

He is the author of Micronesia: Trust Betrayed and numerous articles. He is a Director of the International Paper Company and the Coca-Cola Company. Ambassador McHenry serves on the Boards of the Institute for International Economics, International Institute for Education and the American Ditchley Foundation. He graduated in 1957 from Illinois State University and received a Master’s degree from Southern Illinois University in 1959. He has done post-graduate work at Georgetown University.