This is an accepted version of this page Cindy Lou McCain (née Hensley; born May 20, 1954)[2] is an American diplomat, businesswoman, and humanitarian who is the executive director of the World Food Programme.

She married John McCain in 1980, and the couple moved to Arizona in 1981, where her husband was elected to the United States Congress the following year and reelected five more times.

Upon her father's death in 2000, she inherited majority control and became chair of Hensley & Co., one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the United States.

She participated in both of her husband's presidential campaigns and, in 2008, drew both positive and negative scrutiny for her appearance, demeanor, wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations.

She was nominated to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture ambassadorship by President Biden in June 2021 and confirmed by the Senate in October 2021.

Much of her tenure in that position focused on dealing with the 2022–2023 food crises largely caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change on agriculture.

[22] Declining a role in the family business,[23] she worked for a year as a special education teacher of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities at Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Arizona.

[36] She was considered an outsider who was snubbed by the Washington congressional social scene, in part because Carol McCain was a popular figure in town,[37] and she grew homesick for Arizona.

[2] It was a non-profit organization that organized trips for doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to provide MASH-like emergency medical care to disaster-struck or war-torn developing countries such as Micronesia, Vietnam (before relations were normalized between them and the U.S.[39]), Kuwait (arriving five days after the conclusion of the Gulf War[39]), Zaire (to help refugees from the Rwandan genocide[37]), Iraq, Nicaragua, India, Bangladesh, and El Salvador.

[10][48][51] Meanwhile, in early 1994, Gosinski filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against McCain, in which he alleged she ordered him to conceal "improper acts" and "misrepresent facts in a judicial proceeding;" he told her he would settle for $250,000.

[48] Before prosecutors were able to publicly disclose her addiction to pain medication, McCain preemptively revealed the story to reporters, stating that she was doing so willingly: "Although my conduct did not result in compromising any missions of AVMT, my actions were wrong, and I regret them ... if what I say can help just one person to face the problem, it's worthwhile.

[54] Although wary of the media[10] and still having no love for the political world,[55] McCain was active in her husband's eventually unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States in 2000.

She impressed Republican voters with her elegance at coffee shops and other small campaign settings, where she frequently referred to her children, carpooling and charity work.

[63] As chair, her role takes the form of consultations with the company CEO on major initiatives such as new products, new plants or employee welfare, rather than that of an active physical presence.

[21] She makes financial contributions to these organizations via her family trust[39] and views her role as watching them in the field to ensure they are frugal and their money is being spent effectively.

[37] After several months of physical therapy to overcome leg and arm limitations, she made a mostly full recovery, although she still had some short-term memory loss and difficulties in writing.

[55] In August 2008, a member of the public shook her hand very vigorously, aggravating her existing carpal tunnel syndrome condition and causing her to slightly sprain her wrist.

[52][54] The pressures of the campaign also brought out a range of behaviors between her and her husband, varying from moments of great tenderness and concern to raging arguments that dismayed their staffs.

[106] Continuing her humanitarian aid work with a January 2009 trip to Dubai, India, and Cambodia, she said that she was relieved that the campaign was over and that, while it had been "wild and nuts" at times, it had also been "a remarkable experience to be a contender for the highest office in the land.

"[107] She said the ongoing global economic crisis was adversely affecting humanitarian organizations, and she expressed hope that President Obama would be successful in dealing with it.

[113] She has noted the difficulty of getting attention to some of the topics she feels most strongly about;[114] at a Futures Without Violence summit in 2012, she said, "When I talk about rape in Congo, people turn their backs and run, especially the men.

"[119] During the 2016 United States presidential election, McCain and her husband ended up not voting for the Republican nominee in the wake of the Access Hollywood controversy.

[120] Nonetheless, following the change in administration in Washington, in May 2017 it was reported that McCain was under consideration for a prominent role at the U.S. Department of State, possibly focusing on issues related to human trafficking.

[123] The severity of her husband's illness led to the possibility that he would not be able to finish his term in office and that the Governor of Arizona would have to appoint a successor until a special election could be held.

[126] McCain's attitude towards President Trump took another negative turn in February 2018, following repeated public criticism by the chief executive of her husband's nay vote that had doomed the so-called "Skinny repeal" effort to dismantle Obamacare.

"[120] In July 2018 McCain issued a public statement one year after her husband's initial prognosis, saying that "Though this diagnosis has brought many challenges, our hearts are nevertheless filled with gratitude" towards caregivers, colleagues, and friends.

[136] McCain's endorsement, and the publicly poor relationship between Trump and her late husband, has been given as one of a number of reasons why Biden was able to narrowly win the 2020 United States presidential election in Arizona.

"[140] Later that month, on a resolution that passed by a wide margin, McCain was censured by the Arizona Republican Party for her support of Biden and for "leftist causes such as gay marriage and growth of the administrative state".

[158] The invasion took place shortly after her tenure began, and she was part of a group of administration officials, include U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, that met regularly to discuss how to keep the emergency from destabilizing areas of the world already on the edge of famine.

[165] Nonetheless, McCain said that other areas of the world were also focal points of her attention, especially acute food insecurities in Sudan as well as in other parts of Africa and in Haiti.