During his 28-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis worked almost exclusively on Western Hemisphere issues and as a multilateral diplomat at the United Nations. He served as the first Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana following the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. Prior to taking up his Cuba post in August 2014, he was the Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs and Security Council Coordinator at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. Ambassador DeLaurentis began his State Department career in 1991 as a consular officer in Havana and returned to Cuba as Political Economic Section Chief in 1999-2002. In Washington, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Director of Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council. His last assignment in the Foreign Service was at the Harvard Kennedy School as a Senior Diplomatic Fellow with the Belfer Center Future of Diplomacy Project. Subsequently, Ambassador DeLaurentis was appointed Distinguished Resident Fellow in Latin American and Multilateral Diplomacy Studies at the Georgetown University Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, the George S. McGovern Visiting Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Resident Fellow at the Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies’ Cuba Studies Program (ongoing as an Associate), and a Senior Advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group. He was a member of the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team and called back to government service in January 2021 as the Senior Advisor for Security Council Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the UN, a position he held until October 2023. DeLaurentis was called back a second time in January 2024, to serve as a diplomatic advisor on the interagency task force on Haiti and represent the U.S. on the advisory board of the UN Trust Fund in Support of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) to Haiti.

DeLaurentis is a graduate of the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service and Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. A recipient of multiple State Department awards, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy. He recently joined the Latin America Program Advisory Board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Stimson Center as a Distinguished Fellow.