Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch

Lecture: Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch

"U.S. - China Relations: Hopes and Fears"

7 p.m., November 28, 2007
Gettysburg College

Julia Chang Bloch, former U.S. ambassador to Nepal and president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, gave the Scharf Memorial Lecture at Gettysburg College on November 28, 2007. Her topic was "U.S.-China Relations: Hopes and Fears."

The U.S.-China Education Trust is a program devoted to promoting American Studies in China. Bloch is also distinguished adviser of the School of International and Public Affairs and visiting professor at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Bloch has had an extensive career in international affairs and government service, beginning as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia in 1964 and culminating as the first Asian American to hold the rank of U.S. Ambassador when she was assigned to the Kingdom of Nepal, in 1989.  From 1981 to 1988, Bloch served at the U.S. Agency for International Development as assistant administrator for the Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance and for the Asia and the Near East - two positions that are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Bloch also was the Chief Minority Counsel to a Senate Select Committee; a Senate professional staff member; the Deputy Director of the Office of African Affairs at the US Information Agency; a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and an Associate of the US-Japan Relations Program of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard.

After a 25-year government career, she moved to the private sector, where she headed Corporate Relations as group executive vice president at Bank of America and subsequently served as president and CEO of the United States-Japan Foundation, a private grant making institution with $100 million in assets.

A native of China, Bloch came to the United States at age nine. She earned a B.A. in communications and public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a M.A. in government and East Asia regional studies from Harvard University. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Northeastern University in 1986.

The Henry M. Scharf Memorial Lecture on Current Affairs was established in 1977 by Scharf's long-time friend, Dr. F. William Sunderman, a member of the class of 1919.  Scharf '25 was the builder of the Majestic Theater - a venue which the Eisenhowers frequented while in Gettysburg.  Within the broad focus of "current events," the annual lectures have provided a podium for many distinguished speakers.  In 2006, Susan Eisenhower spoke as prelude to the showing of the documentary film Why We Fight.