Shannon Farrell joined the Foreign Service in 2003 after working as a corporate attorney in private practice for eight years. Before her assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission to the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane, Laos, she was the Diplomat in Residence at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She also served as the Director for Continental United States Operations in the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE), as a part of Operation Allies Welcome’s historic evacuation and resettlement of 72, 000 Afghans to the United States. She has served in every career track in the Foreign Service and in every geographic bureau during her 20-year career. Overseas she served as Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, Ireland and her other foreign assignments include Ethiopia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Argentina, and Germany as well as temporary assignments in Haiti, Cairo, and Oslo.

In Washington, she served as an inspector in the Department of State’s Office of the Inspector General, as a Human Resources Officer in the Office of Employee Relations, Conduct, Discipline and Suitability Division, and as a staff assistant to two former Assistant Secretaries of State for Consular Affairs. Shannon received a degree cum laude in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Tulane University where she was also elected to the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. She received her J.D. degree cum laude from the University Wisconsin Law School and is also a distinguished graduate of the National War College receiving a Master’s in National Security Strategy in 2020.