Ex-US diplomat Rosemary DiCarlo gets top UN political post

Former U.S. diplomat Rosemary DiCarlo has been tapped as the United Nations' next political affairs chief. She'll be the first woman in the high-level post.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment Wednesday. DiCarlo succeeds Jeffrey Feltman, another American who ends his assignment as undersecretary-general for political affairs Saturday.

DiCarlo is a former deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and served in various State Department positions. She also worked for UNESCO during a more than 35-year career.

She's currently president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, an group focused on solutions to conflicts involving U.S. interests. DiCarlo also is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

She has a doctorate in comparative literature from Brown University and speaks French and Russian.