Stanton, Karen Clark, 1955-

Karen Clark Stanton (born 1955) is a diplomat and former United States Ambassador to Timor-Leste (2014-2017).

A native of Michigan, Stanton earned a B.A. at the University of Michigan before joining the Foreign Service.

After Stanton joined the Foreign Service, she held early positions that included working at the State Department's Operations Center as a Watch Officer, and she was a Special Assistant to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. She served as a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, from 1987 to 1990, experiencing the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. From 1991 to 1993 she served at the embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. She then returned to the U.S. for a two-year assignment as a consular officer in the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department in Washington, D.C. Stanton then returned to the embassy in Beijing, where she served from 1995 to 1998.

Stanton then attended the National War College, where she received an M.S.S. in 2000. Her thesis was titled "Controlling Weapons of Mere Destruction".

Stanton then became an assignments officer in the Bureau of Human Resources, and served as a management counselor at the embassy in Singapore from 2004 to 2008. She then joined the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Stanton was nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to Timor-Leste by President Barack Obama on July 31, 2013. Due to a backlog of appointments, she was not confirmed by the Senate November 19, 2014. Stanton presented her credentials to President Taur Matan Ruak on January 16, 2015. She left this post on December 22, 2017.

Stanton is married to William Stanton, a retired Foreign Service officer, who served as Director of the Center for Asia Policy at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and now as vice-president of National Yan Min University. They have two daughters.