Ms. Karen Kelley is the Public Diplomacy Advisor to the Commander, U.S. Pacific Command in Honolulu, Hawaii. She came to the Pacific Command after serving from August 2001 to July 2005 as Press Attaché and official spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. Ms. Kelley joined the U.S. Foreign Service in January 29, 1989 and was tenured in the career service in 1992. She trained for two years in Japanese language and country area studies at the George P. Schultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia, and at the State Department Japanese Language Field School in Yokohama, Japan. She served eight years in Japan, from 1990-1994 and from 1996-2000: as Deputy Director of the Tokyo American Center and as Public Affairs Officer within the U.S. Consulates General in Osaka and in Okinawa. Ms. Kelley has also served as Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon, and has worked in Washington, D.C. within the African Affairs Bureau and within the Fulbright Program Office for European Exchanges. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Kelley performed two years of volunteer service from 1979-1981 with the U.S. Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language. Following the end of her Peace Corps service, she worked three additional years from 1981-1984 with the British Embassy in Dakar, Senegal as Cultural Assistant to British Cultural Attaché. Ms. Kelley earned a B.A. in French Language and Civilization at Syracuse University in 1979. She has also undertaken graduate coursework in applied economics at the American University in Washington, D.C. In April 2001, she successfully completed the Executive Course of the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ms. Kelley speaks French and Japanese. She has been the recipient of two individual Meritorious Honor Awards, a Group Meritorious Honor Award, and a Sustained Superior Performance Award from the Department of State. In recognition of her public affairs support to U.S. military activities in the Philippines, the U.S. Pacific Command Public Affairs Office nominated Ms. Kelley for the Department of Defense Joint Civilian Service Award, which she received in November 2004.