The Australian government confirmed that Ambassador Caroline Kennedy will be the guest speaker at the Adelaide IWD breakfast in 2023.
“We are delighted to announce that Ambassador Caroline Kennedy will be the featured speaker at the Adelaide IWD breakfast in 2023!” the government said.
Adelaide International Women’s Day (IWD) Breakfast Committee organizes Australia’s biggest IWD event and is Adelaide’s largest Annual Women’s Event.
On July 25, 2022, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy submitted her credentials to the Commonwealth of Australia’s Governor-General. From 2013 to 2017, she worked as the American ambassador to Japan. She was essential in celebrating the 70th anniversary of end of World War II, which culminated in the historic trips to Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor by Prime Minister Abe and President Obama. She supported the realignment of American forces in Okinawa, encouraged female emancipation in Japan, and boosted student interchange.
To link students electronically in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and the Bronx using the power of the spoken word, she launched the International Poetry Exchange Project in 2017. For her efforts to fortify the U.S.-Japan relationship, she received the Grand Cordon of Order of the Rising Sun in 2021, the highest honour for which foreigners are eligible.
Before moving to Japan, Kennedy led the way in New York City’s attempts to transform education by establishing public-private partnerships to advance arts instruction, school libraries, and performance venues. She worked for the NYC Department of Education as CEO of the Office of Strategic Partnerships (2002–2004), Vice Chair for the Fund for Public Schools (2002–2011), and member of the board of New Visions for Public Schools.
Kennedy is a lawyer and an author who has written 11 New York Times best-selling books on law, civics, and poetry. She serves as the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Honorary President. She held positions as Co-Chair of the Harvard Institute of Politics, Trustee of various nonprofit organizations, including the Carnegie Corporation, International Rescue Committee, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Director of the Boeing Company. She holds degrees from both Columbia Law School and Harvard University.
