PRESS RELEASE | Ambassador Kathleen Stephens commences as Korea Society Board Chair
The Korea Society is pleased to announce that Ambassador Kathleen Stephens has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors to serve as the new Board Chair effective January 2020.
Ambassador Stephens' connection with Korea began in 1975 when she spent two years in Chungnam Province as a Peace Corps volunteer. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2008 to 2011, the first Korean-language speaker and first woman in that role. She currently serves as the president and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, DC.
Ambassador Stephens was a U.S. Foreign Service officer from 1978 to 2015. In addition to Korea, her other diplomatic postings included China, India, Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland. She was on the National Security Council staff in the 1990s, and served in senior positions at the Department of State, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (2003-2005), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2005-2007), and acting Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (2012). Since 2015, she has been the William J. Perry Fellow at Stanford University's Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), where she teaches classes on U.S. foreign policy, diplomacy and U.S.-Korea relations.
“This is an important time in the U.S.-Korea relationship,” Ambassador Stephens said. “Interest in the policy challenges we face is higher than I've ever seen it, whether on the Hill, in media and academia, or in the broader public. I look forward to doing all I can in working with the Korea Society’s board of directors, its management and its supporters and stakeholders in advancing the mission of the Society--to advance awareness understanding and cooperation between the people of Korea and America," remarked Ambassador Stephens.
Ambassador Stephens will succeed Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard who has served as chair of the Korea Society's board for more than a decade, from 2009 through 2019. A career foreign-service officer for nearly forty years, Ambassador Hubbard served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2001 to 2004. He held key Washington postings, including assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Ambassador Hubbard was a principal negotiator of the 1994 Agreed Framework aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and headed the first senior-level U.S. government delegation to North Korea.
Ambassador Hubbard expressed his congratulations to the Korea Society Board on the selection of Ambassador Kathy Stephens to be the next Chair of the Board. “I can think of no one more qualified to lead this important organization in the coming years. It was both a pleasure and an honor for me to Chair the Korea Society for the last ten years, and I thank the board as well as President Tom Byrne and his able staff for their support. I plan to stay in close touch with the Korea Society and will continue to do all I can to promote close understanding between the American and Korean people as our two nations grapple with the challenges and opportunities before us.”
“I will miss the support provided by Ambassador Thomas Hubbard in the four years I have served as president. Tom provided dedicated leadership in helping the Society expand its programs, raise its profile and reach a wider audience, while shoring up our financial footing. And I look forward to working with Ambassador Kathy Stephens to build on these accomplishments. Kathy and I share a common bond with Korea—we both served as Peace Corps Volunteers there in the late-1970s. Since then, two-way cultural and economic exchanges between Korea and the U.S. have grown tremendously, while the deep friendship between the peoples of the two countries has remained constant. I am eager to work with Kathy to advance the mission and strengthen the value proposition of the Korea Society,” said the Society’s president, Tom Byrne.
