Nancy Halliday Ely-Raphel (born 1937) is an American diplomat. She was the United States Ambassador to Slovenia from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, she was the first Director of the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other natio ...

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) is an agency within the United States Department of State charged with investigating and creating programs to prevent human trafficking both within the United States and internation ...

Biography

Early life and education

Ely-Raphel was born in 1937 to Margaret Merritt Halliday and Thomas Clarkson Halliday. She has one brother, Thomas Clarkson Halliday III. She graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in New York and attended the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one o ...

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the '' Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzbur ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. In 1968, she graduated from

University of San Diego School of Law The University of San Diego School of Law (USD Law) is the law school of the University of San Diego, a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1954, the law school has held ABA approval since 1961. It ...

with a

juris doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

Career

Prior to joining the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

, she was a

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

deputy city attorney, an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...

in the Southern District of California, an Associate Dean of

Boston University School of Law Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an el ...

, and senior trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Organized Crime Strike Force. Between 1975 and 2003, she served in a number of legal and policy positions in the State Department, including Assistant Legal Adviser for African Affairs and Nuclear Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, as well as Legal Adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. From 1995 to 1998 she was Coordinator for Bosnia, and assisted in the implementation of the

Dayton Peace Accords The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords ( Croatian: ''Daytonski sporazum'', Serbian and Bosnian: ''Dejtonski mirovni sporazum'' / Дејтонски мир� ...

. On June 29, 1998, she was appointed by

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again f ...

to be the third United States Ambassador to Slovenia. She presented her credentials on September 2, 1998, and left the post on September 27, 2001. From 2001 to 2003 she was Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and the first Director of the State Department's

, an office that she established. After that, she was the Counselor on International Law in the Department's

Office of the Legal Adviser The legal adviser of the Department of State is a position within the United States Department of State. It was created by an Act of Congress on February 23, 1931 (P.L. 71-715; 46 Stat. 1214). The legal adviser replaced the solicitor, a Departm ...

. Following her State Department service, she served as vice president and managing director of

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

. She is a member of the

American Academy of Diplomacy The American Academy of Diplomacy is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan, elected organization whose active membership is limited to men and women who have held positions of high responsibility in crafting and implementing American foreign policy. ...

and the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

, and is a resident of the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

Personal life

Her first husband was Dr. Robert A. Duff, of Carlsbad, California. In 1971 she married her second husband, the legal scholar

John Hart Ely John Hart Ely ( ; December 3, 1938 – October 25, 2003) was an American legal scholar. He was a professor of law at Yale Law School from 1968 to 1973, Harvard Law School from 1973 to 1982, Stanford Law School from 1982 to 1996, and at the Uni ...

. In 1987 she married her third husband,

Arnold Lewis Raphel Arnold Lewis Raphel (March 16, 1943 – August 17, 1988) was the 18th United States Ambassador to Pakistan. Early life and education Raphel was born March 16, 1943 in Troy, New York, into a Jewish family, the son of Harry and Sarah (Rote-Rose ...

, the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, but she was widowed on August 17, 1988, when he was killed in a plane crash. In 2008, Ely-Raphel was described as the "companion of 12 years" of the late diplomat and spy novelist

Samuel J. Hamrick Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

, in his obituary. She has at least one child, Robert Duff Ely, an insurance defense lawyer in New York.

References

External links

United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission for Slovenia

United States Department of State: Slovenia

United States Embassy in Ljubljana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ely Raphel, Nancy Halliday Ambassadors of the United States to Slovenia 1937 births Living people University of San Diego School of Law alumni Syracuse University alumni Boston University faculty People from Washington, D.C. American women in politics United States Ambassadors-at-Large United States Foreign Service personnel American women ambassadors American women academics 21st-century American women