Ambassador Quinn has had a very distinguished career in the US State Department, including as Coordinator for Afghanistan; Acting Chief of Mission in Kabul; and Ambassador to Qatar. She has also served in Morocco, Pakistan, Guinea and Panama. Ambassador Quinn spent half her diplomatic career at the State Department in Washington, where she served as Deputy Executive Secretary in the Executive Secretariat; Executive Assistant to the Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs; and held a mid-career Pearson Fellowship in the US House of Representatives.

She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University, teaching a graduate course on the Middle East at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. She has also taught at New York University, and The Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College. She received her B.A. in French and Economics from Newcomb College of Tulane University and her M.S.F.S. at Georgetown University.