Trina Vargo is the president of the US-Ireland Alliance, an organization she founded in 1998. She created the US-Ireland Alliance (formerly known as the George J. Mitchell Scholarship), considered one of the most prestigious programs for future American leaders to study abroad. She also created the Oscar Wilde Awards to build ties between the entertainment industries in the US, Ireland and Northern Ireland. This event has led to several films shooting on the island, including STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS.

From late 1987 until April 1998, she was employed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy and served as his foreign policy adviser during the critical years of the Northern Ireland peace process. Trina is the author of the book Shenanigans The US-Ireland Relationship in Uncertain Times.

Trina served as the adviser on Irish issues to the campaigns of every Democratic nominee for President from Michael Dukakis through Barack Obama. She advised several American Ambassadors to Ireland going back to the mid-1990s when Jean Kennedy Smith was nominated as President Clinton’s Ambassador. Vargo also served as an adviser to Madeleine Albright when she was preparing for her Senate confirmation hearings to become the US Ambassador to the UN. Trina has provided testimony to the House Appropriations Committee and addressed the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament). With the achievement of the Northern Ireland peace agreement, Trina recognized that the relationship between the US and the island of Ireland would naturally change, something she wrote about in the Washington Post upon the launch of the US-Ireland Alliance.

Born and raised in central Pennsylvania, Vargo graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with degrees in Political Science and History. As the recipient of a Rotary International Fellowship, she attended McGill University in Montreal, where she obtained an M.A. degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations.

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