Alumni Spotlight: Shelly Johannessen '88

During a Global Studies assembly on Friday, March 4, alumna Shelly Johannessen '88 — 2013 Saints in Service award recipient — spoke with Upper School students on current events in Ukraine and her experience serving as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State for over 25 years. Johannessen has held seven overseas postings at United States Embassies in Moscow, Russia (1999-2001), Baghdad, Iraq (2003-2004), and Vienna, Austria (2004-2007) with senior management and leadership positions in Minsk, Belarus (2007-2008), Havana, Cuba (2010-2012), Moscow, Russia (2012-2015), and Paris, France (2018-2021). Johannessen speaks and held USG language certifications in Russian, Spanish, and French as well as 6 years of academic and professional Japanese language usage both as an employee in the Press Section at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC (1994-1996) and as an English teacher in Kagoshima, Japan (1992-1994).