Kavalec is a career member of the
Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of minister-counselor. She has served as the head of mission at the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to
Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2019. Previously, she served as deputy assistant secretary in the
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Kavalec also served as the director of the Office of Russian Affairs and the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. mission UNESCO in
Paris, France. Kavalec was responsible for overseeing major U.S. foreign assistance programs as deputy coordinator for assistance in the European Bureau, and as director for conflict prevention in the
Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. Kavalec has served in
Bucharest, Romania,
Kyiv, Ukraine and
Moscow, Russia. Domestically, she served as a legislative management officer in the
Bureau of Legislative Affairs and has also served as director of the economic unit in the office of the coordinator for assistance for the New Independent States.
Nomination as United States ambassador to Albania On July 3, 2018, President
Donald Trump nominated Kavalec to be the next
United States ambassador to Albania. Her nomination expired at the end of the year and was ultimately returned to Trump.
United States ambassador to Romania On June 3, 2022, President
Joe Biden nominated Kavalec to be the United States ambassador to
Romania. Hearings on her nomination were held before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee on November 29, 2022. The committee favorably reported the nomination on December 7, 2022. On December 15, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by in the Senate by
voice vote. She was sworn in on December 20, 2022, and presented her credentials to President
Klaus Iohannis on February 14, 2023.
Satanic baby art controversy In 2025, Florida Representative
Anna Paulina Luna complained that she had seen "satanic baby art" at the Ambassador's residence in
Bucharest to
Erin Scavino, who runs the State Department
Art in Embassies Program under the Trump administration. The work was
Faun in the Big City (2014) by
Einar and Jamex de la Torre, an LED lightbox with a horned head in the center, invoking Christian and Mexican traditional iconography and placed in the residence by the Art in Embassies Program. Scavino had the art removed and later implied on the podcast
The Katie Miller Show that she had the ambassador removed from her position as well. ==Awards and recognitions==