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Bernadette Meehan

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Bernadette Meehan
Meehan in December 2025
United States Ambassador to Chile
In office
September 30, 2022 – January 20, 2025
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byCarol Z. Perez
Succeeded byBrandon Judd
Chief Executive Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 20, 2026
Preceded byMaryana Iskander
Spokesperson for the United States National Security Council
In office
October 2014 – June 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Personal details
SpouseEvan S. Medeiros
EducationBoston College (BA)

Bernadette M. Meehan (/ˈmiːən/[1]) is an American diplomat who was the United States ambassador to Chile from 2022 to 2025. She has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Wikimedia Foundation since January 20, 2026.

Early life and education

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Meehan was born in The Bronx, raised in Pleasantville, New York, and graduated from Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers, New York in 1993.[2] At 16, she moved to Río Gallegos, Argentina, as a high school exchange student.[3] She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in political science.[2]

Career

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After graduation, she worked on Wall Street, including as a vice president of Private Banking at JPMorgan Chase and then as a Vice President of Asset Management at Lehman Brothers.[4][5] She joined the United States Foreign Service in 2004.[2][6][5]

Meehan joined the United States Department of State as a Foreign Service officer in 2004, and began her new career as a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia.[6][7] In 2010, she returned to Washington, D.C., to work as a State Department "line officer", advancing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's overseas travel. She then became special assistant to Clinton.[6][7] She had also served in Dubai and Iraq.[8] From 2012 to 2015, Meehan was the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council (NSC).[6][8] In 2015, Meehan become dean and Virginia Rusk fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.[5]

In March 2016, Meehan was enlisted by Ben Rhodes to help plan Barack Obama's visit to Cuba.[9] She worked as a senior advisor at the NSC from January 2016 to January 2017.[10] In February 2017, Meehan left the Foreign Service for the Obama Foundation, where she served as the executive director of International Programs, Chief International Officer,[11] and then executive vice president of Global Programs.[12]

United States ambassador to Chile

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Meehan sworn in as ambassador to Chile in 2022 by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman

On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Meehan to be the next United States ambassador to Chile.[13] Hearings on her nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 15, 2022. The committee favorably reported her nomination on May 18, 2022.[14] On July 20, 2022, the United States Senate confirmed her nomination by a 51–44 vote.[15] She was sworn in on August 29, 2022,[16] and presented her credentials to President Gabriel Boric on September 30, 2022.[17] Following the re-election of Donald Trump as president, Meehan submitted her resignation as ambassador effective January 10, 2025, following tradition for political appointees of both parties.[1]

Post-ambassadorial career

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On December 9, 2025, Meehan was appointed CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.[12] She assumed the role on January 20, 2026,[18] succeeding Maryana Iskander. The New York Times described her as fitting in with the non-flashy image of Wikipedians.[19]

Personal life

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Meehan speaks English, Spanish, and Arabic.[18] She is married to Evan S. Medeiros, the Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service.[20]

References

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  1. 1 2 "CNN Íntimo Bernadette Meehan, embajadora EE UU en Chile". CNN Chile. December 12, 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Gael". John F. Kennedy Catholic High School. Somers, NY. Fall 2015. Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  3. ↑ Meehan, Bernadette (December 9, 2025). "Welcoming the Wikimedia Foundation's new CEO". Diff. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved January 12, 2026.
  4. ↑ Edwards, Haley (Winter 2013). "Capital gains". Boston College Magazine. Archived from the original on June 25, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Bernadette Meehan". Georgetown University Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Meehan, Bernadette (February 8, 2012). "RealJobs: Bernadette Meehan". Boston College Career Center. Archived from the original on February 17, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Meehan, Bernadette M. - Republic of Chile". United States Department of State. July 2021. Archived from the original on December 21, 2025. Retrieved May 31, 2026.
  8. 1 2 Crowley, Michael (May 31, 2015). "NSC spokeswoman Meehan to depart in latest Obama press staff change". POLITICO. Retrieved August 25, 2026.
  9. ↑ Hirschfeld Davis, Julie (March 7, 2016). "White House and Cuba Maneuver Over Obama's Visit". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 31, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2025. Mr. Rhodes enlisted Bernadette Meehan, a former National Security Council spokeswoman and Foreign Service officer, who left the White House in June, to return to the West Wing to help plan the trip, reflecting the complexity of the task and the importance Mr. Obama places on bringing it off smoothly.
  10. ↑ "Happy Hour with the Obama Foundation's Bernadette Meehan". Americas Society / Council of the Americas. Retrieved December 19, 2025. From January 2016 to January 2017, Meehan served as a senior advisor at the White House National Security Council, conducting negotiations with the government of Cuba and overseeing a series of regulatory changes and migration agreements.
  11. ↑ "Obama Foundation Announces New Program to Train Emerging Leaders Across Africa". The Obama Foundation. April 23, 2018. Archived from the original on July 31, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  12. 1 2 Sophia, Deborah Mary (December 9, 2025). "Exclusive: Wikipedia operator taps former US Ambassador to Chile for CEO role". Reuters.
  13. ↑ "President Biden Announces His Intent to Nominate Four Individuals to Serve as Ambassadors". The White House. July 9, 2021. Archived from the original on January 21, 2025. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  14. ↑ "PN787 — Bernadette M. Meehan — Department of State 117th Congress (2021-2022)". United States Congress. March 15, 2022. Archived from the original on December 30, 2025. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  15. ↑ "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Bernadette M. Meehan, of New York, to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Chile)". United States Senate. Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Quién es Bernadette Meehan, embajadora de EE. UU. En Chile". Ex-Ante (in Spanish). September 13, 2022. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Presidente de la República Gabriel Boric Font recibe Cartas Credenciales de seis nuevos embajadores" [President of the Republic Gabriel Boric Font receives Letters of Credence from six new ambassadors]. Government of Chile. September 30, 2022. Archived from the original on February 9, 2025. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
  18. 1 2 "Wikimedia Foundation appoints Bernadette Meehan as Chief Executive Officer". Wikimedia Foundation. December 9, 2025. Archived from the original on January 1, 2026. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
  19. ↑ Hsu, Tiffany (July 5, 2026). "Wikipedia Is Battling for the Soul of the Internet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 2, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Evan S. Medeiros Biography" (PDF). Georgetown University. 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
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