Michael McClellan

Deputy Chief of Mission

Michael McClellan, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Juba, South Sudan, joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1984.  He served in Yemen, Egypt, Russia, Kosovo, Germany, Ireland, Iraq, and Ethiopia as a Public Diplomacy Officer, as well as Spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.  As the first diplomat from any country assigned to Kosovo, McClellan opened a diplomatic office and, with the Rochester Institute of Technology, organized and opened the American University in Kosovo.  In Iraq he served on the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team, a civilian-military inter-agency effort that provided the primary connection between U.S. and coalition partners, and the provincial and local governments of Iraq’s provinces. In Ethiopia, McClellan’s work focused on “Faith Communities Outreach” as a means of confidence-building and conflict resolution between Ethiopia’s Christian and Muslim communities.

McClellan’s book, “Monasticism in Egypt: Images and Words of the Desert Fathers,” was published in 1998 by the American University in Cairo Press. His photos have been published extensively in North American media and video productions, exhibited widely, and are in the permanent collection of Grand Valley State University. 

A native of Kentucky, where he owns a small, organic farm, McClellan earned a BA in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Louisville, an MA in Photojournalism and International Relations from Syracuse University, and a completed PhD studies (ABD) in Communications and Government/Press Relations at Indiana University.