Karen Hughes

Karen Parfitt Hughes ( * December 27, 1956 in Paris, France) is an American politician from Texas.

Hughes is a member of the Republican Party and was from 2001 to 2002 one of the closest advisers of U.S. President George W. Bush. From March 2005 to October 2007, she served as Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy ( Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs ) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United States. From the Texas newspaper Dallas Morning News she was designated in 2004 as the " most powerful woman who has ever worked in the White House ."

Her father Harold Parfitt was the last U.S. Governor of the Panama Canal Zone.