Mary Kissel

Mary Elizabeth Kissel is Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, where she provides advice on policy and messaging and conducts special assignments for the Secretary. Previously, she was a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board in New York City, and opinion editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia,based in Hong Kong, responsible for the newspaper's commentary on Asia-Pacific.

Kissel was born in south Florida and is a graduate of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts. She received a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard University, where she performed with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and Harvard College Opera. She was well known on campus as a marimba virtuosa. She earned a Master’s Degree from Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, studying at the university's Bologna, Italy and Washington DC campuses.

Immediately prior to her State Department appointment, Kissel served as a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board in New York City, where she contributed editorials on foreign affairs for the newspaper's"Review & Outlook" column. She hosted the Journal's popular "Foreign Edition" podcast on foreign policy, where she interviewed and debated guests ranging from former Secretary of State George Shultz to National Security Advisor John Bolton. She also served as a Fox News contributor from 2017 to 2018, appearing as a regular panelist on The Journal Editorial Report, Sunday Morning Futures and Mornings With Maria. On Thursday evenings, Kissel co-hosted The John Batchelor Show, a nationally syndicated talk show.

Kissel started her career as a fixed income research and capital markets specialist at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, in New York City and London.

She joined The Wall Street Journal Asia in Hong Kong in 2004 as a foreign correspondent, and contributed to the Money & Investing section’s Heard in Asia column. From 2005 to 2010, she served as editorial-page editor, responsible for the newspaper's commentary on Asia-Pacific. In that role, she traveled widely throughout the region, profiling the Dalai Lama, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, among others. She warned against Beijing's military build-up in the Pacific and the Party's repression of Hong Kong's freedoms.

Kissel has also written for the Far Eastern Economic Review, The Spectator, and World Affairs.

Her television credits include ABC News, CNN, MSNBC and Sky News. Her radio appearances include ABC Radio, Fox News Radio, Radio National and the Larry Kudlow Show, among others.

Kissel was a 2006 Claremont Institute Lincoln Fellow and a Hoover Institution Edwards Media Fellow in 2012 and 2016. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

2018

• Spoke at the American Enterprise Institute's Summer Honors Program, Washington DC, June 20, 2018.
• Moderated panel at Independent Women's Forum's screening of "The Price of Peace," Washington DC, March 22, 2018.

2017

• Moderated discussion with former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster for the 2nd Annual Fouad Ajami Memorial Lecture, Hoover Institution, Washington, DC, October 30, 2017.
• Spoke at the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, Palm Beach, Florida, September 19, 2017.
• Moderated discussion with Steve Forbes, Steamboat Institute, August 26, 2017.
• Spoke at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation summer gala, Plymouth Notch, Vermont, July 3, 2017.
• Spoke at the Four Arts Foundation, "Is Asia Lost to China?," Palm Beach, Florida, March 21, 2017.
• Moderated discussion with Devin Nunes, Steamboat Institute, Monterey Bay, California, February 25, 2017.

2016

• Moderated panel with Michael Flynn and Michael Ledeen, Steamboat Institute Freedom Conference, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, August 26, 2016.
• Spoke at Johns Hopkins SAIS "Distinguished Alumni Dinner," New York, New York, April 20, 2016.
• Moderated discussion with Amb. Michael McFaul, Hoover Institution, "A Tribute to Robert Conquest," Palo Alto, California, February 5, 2016.[1]

2015

• Moderated panel with Deborah Brautigam, Mark Gilbert, and John McLaughlin, "Strategic Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Next U.S. Administration," Amici di Bologna, Washington DC, October 10, 2015.
• Moderated discussion with Pascal Lamy, International Tax and Investment Center, Washington DC, April 17, 2015.

2013

• Panelist at the Public Knowledge Forum, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, November 4, 2013.
• Moderated discussion with Vali Nasr, "The U.S. and China in the Middle East," Asia Society, New York, New York, June 17, 2013.
• Spoke at the National Press Club of Australia, Canberra, Australia, March 5, 2013.

2010

• Spoke at the Sydney Institute, "The U.S. and Australia -- Taking Notes of Conservatives," Sydney, Australia, September 28, 2010.
• Spoke at Asia Society, "Women Leaders of New Asia," Hong Kong, China, June 14, 2010.
• Moderated panel at the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2010, "Building China's Middle Class," Beverly Hills, California, April 27, 2010.

2009

• Moderated panel at the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2009, "Reinventing Asia's Growth Miracle," Beverly Hills, California, April 27, 2009.
• Spoke at Prime Source Forum, Hong Kong, China, April 1, 2009.

2008

• Moderated discussion with Heizo Takenaka, Asia Society, Hong Kong, China, July 23, 2008.

2007

• Moderated discussion with Michael Kurtz, Qu Hongbin, and Sean Wallace, "Integrating Hong Kong and Mainland China's Financial Markets," Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 15, 2007.