AMES, Iowa -- Wendy Chamberlin, a 29-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service and former ambassador to Pakistan, will present "Can We Save the World?" at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27 in the Memorial Union Great Hall at Iowa State University. The talk, which is part of the university's World Affairs Series, is free and open to the public.
Since 2007, Chamberlin has served as president of the Middle East Institute. She previously directed civilian reconstruction programs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and development assistance programs in the Middle East and East Asia for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Chamberlin also has served as deputy high commissioner for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, where she supervised the administration of the U.N. humanitarian organization with a budget of $4 billion.
In addition, Chamberlin has extensive experience in counterterrorism, having served as director of global affairs and counterterrorism at the National Security Council, and as deputy in the Bureau of International Counter-Narcotics and Law Programs. She was U.S. ambassador to the Laos People's Democratic Republic from 1996 to 1999, and has held other postings in Malaysia, Morocco and Zaire.
Chamberlin's opinion pieces have been published in The Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune. She has made several appearances on NPR, ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC.
Chamberlin holds a bachelor's degree and honorary doctorate from Northwestern University, and a master's degree in education from Boston University.
Chamberlin's lecture is cosponsored by World Affairs, the Ames-ISU YWCA and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.
