Mr. Callahan joined the Foreign Service in 1979 and, after training and language classes, served in Costa Rica as assistant cultural affairs officer and in Honduras first as cultural attaché and later as press officer. In 1985 he was assigned to the embassy in London as the ambassador’s speechwriter and assistant press attaché. In 1989 he returned to Latin America as counselor for public affairs in La Paz, Bolivia.

After a tour in Washington from 1992-95, which included Greek language training, Mr. Callahan became the counselor for public affairs in Athens, and then from 1998-2002 he served as minister counselor for public affairs in Rome. That summer he returned to the U.S., where he taught for 2 years at the National War College in Washington, DC on a detail assignment from the State Department. In 2004, he volunteered to serve for 1 year as embassy spokesman and press attaché in Baghdad.

Mr. Callahan has a B.A. in modern European history from Loyola University in Chicago and an M.A. in American history from DePaul University also in Chicago. He was an editor at Loyola University Press in Chicago before joining the Foreign Service. He speaks Spanish, Greek, and Italian.