Shelly joined the Commission in 2006 as Policy Advisor for Economics, Environment, Technology, and Trade. Her portfolio at the Commission also includes the countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the OSCE Asian Partners for Cooperation (Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Australia).
Prior to joining the Commission, Shelly spent six years in the Executive Branch and more than 10 years in the private sector. During the founding years of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), she served as a policy advisor and then as the acting Chief of Staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Before joining DHS, she was a senior international policy advisor at the Department of Commerce working on sanctions policies and international security policy related to the export of sensitive goods and technology.
In the private sector Shelly focused on international trade, working for more than a decade in trade policy and business promotion with a focus on the Asia Pacific region. During that time she assisted numerous U.S. companies in better understanding their target foreign markets by providing cultural, political and regulatory analysis of market conditions.
She has an M.A. in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University and a B.A. in Political Science and Oriental Studies from the University of Arizona. Shelly is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
