List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Nations

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the delegation of the United States, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations
Seal of the Department of State
Incumbent Dorothy Shea Chargé d'affaires since January 20, 2025
United States Mission to the United Nations
Style	Madam Ambassador (informal) The Honorable (formal) Her Excellency (diplomatic)
Member of	National Security Council Cabinet
Reports to	President Secretary of State
Residence	50 United Nations Plaza
Seat	United Nations Headquarters New York City, New York, U.S.
Appointer	President with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term At the pleasure of the President of the United States
Formation	December 21, 1945; 79 years ago (1945-12-21)
First holder	Edward Stettinius Jr.
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level IV
Website	usun.usmission.gov

Ambassadors that served in political positions include Adlai Stevenson, George H.W. Bush, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright, John R. Bolton, Susan Rice and Nikki Haley.

List of ambassadors

Status

  Denotes Acting United States Ambassador to the United Nations

The following is a chronological list of those who have held the office:

#	Portrait	Name	Start	End	President
1		Edward Stettinius Jr.	January 17, 1946	June 3, 1946		Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
—		Herschel Johnson Acting	June 3, 1946	January 14, 1947
2		Warren Austin	January 14, 1947	January 22, 1953[a]
3		Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.	January 26, 1953[1]	September 3, 1960		Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
4		James Jeremiah Wadsworth	September 8, 1960	January 21, 1961[b]
5		Adlai Stevenson II	January 23, 1961	July 14, 1965[c]		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
6		Arthur Goldberg	July 28, 1965	June 24, 1968		Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
7		George Ball	June 26, 1968	September 25, 1968
8		James Russell Wiggins	October 7, 1968	January 20, 1969
9		Charles W. Yost	January 23, 1969	February 25, 1971		Richard Nixon (1969–1975)
10		George H. W. Bush	March 1, 1971	January 18, 1973
11		John A. Scali	February 20, 1973	June 29, 1975
						Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
12		Daniel Patrick Moynihan	June 30, 1975	February 2, 1976
13		William Scranton	March 15, 1976	January 19, 1977
14		Andrew Young	January 30, 1977	September 23, 1979		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
15		Donald McHenry	September 23, 1979	January 20, 1981
16		Jeane Kirkpatrick	February 4, 1981	April 1, 1985		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
17		Vernon A. Walters	May 22, 1985	March 15, 1989[d]
18		Thomas R. Pickering	March 20, 1989	May 7, 1992		George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
19		Edward J. Perkins	May 12, 1992	January 27, 1993[e]
20		Madeleine Albright	January 27, 1993	January 21, 1997		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
21		Bill Richardson	February 18, 1997	August 18, 1998
—		Peter Burleigh Acting	August 18, 1998	September 7, 1999
22		Richard Holbrooke	September 7, 1999	January 20, 2001
—		James B. Cunningham Acting	January 20, 2001	September 19, 2001		George W. Bush (2001–2009)
23		John Negroponte	September 19, 2001	July 23, 2004
24		John Danforth	July 23, 2004	January 20, 2005
—		Anne W. Patterson Acting	January 20, 2005	August 2, 2005
25		John Bolton	August 2, 2005	December 31, 2006
—		Alejandro Daniel Wolff Acting	December 31, 2006	April 30, 2007
26		Zalmay Khalilzad	April 30, 2007	January 22, 2009[a]
27		Susan Rice	January 26, 2009	June 30, 2013		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
—		Rosemary DiCarlo Acting	June 30, 2013	August 5, 2013
28		Samantha Power	August 5, 2013	January 20, 2017
—		Michele J. Sison Acting	January 20, 2017	January 27, 2017		Donald Trump (2017–2021)
29		Nikki Haley	January 27, 2017	December 31, 2018
—		Jonathan R. Cohen Acting	January 1, 2019	September 12, 2019
30		Kelly Craft	September 12, 2019	January 20, 2021
—		Richard M. Mills Jr. Acting	January 20, 2021	February 25, 2021		Joe Biden (2021–2025)
31		Linda Thomas-Greenfield	February 25, 2021	January 20, 2025
—		Dorothy Shea Acting[2]	January 20, 2025	present		Donald Trump (2025–present)
Nominee		Mike Waltz	TBD

Notes

1. Last two days of service were under the next administration
2. Last day of service was under the next administration
3. Continued serving into the next administration for almost twenty months, until his death
4. Continued serving into the next administration for almost two months
5. Continued serving into the next administration for one week