Karin Olofsdotter, the Swedish ambassador to the United States, will discuss the importance of a free press at the Cronkite School’s First Amendment Forum on Wednesday, Nov. 3 from 10 to 11 a.m.
The event is sponsored by Cronkite Global Initiatives under the direction of Juan Mundel, director. Students and faculty are encouraged to attend. Coffee, tea and donuts will be provided.
Sweden has the world’s oldest law governing Freedom of the Press and Olofsdotter is a strong advocate for press freedom across the globe.
Appointed ambassador of Sweden to the U.S. on Sept. 1, 2017, Olofsdotter is an accomplished diplomat. Her career in the Foreign Service started in 1994 with her first posting to the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow. In the years following, she worked in security policy and defense issues as well as in numerous leadership posts within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including serving as chief of staff for several of its ministers and director of the Ministers’ Office. She has also served as a member of the Swedish delegation to NATO and at the Swedish EU Representation in Brussels, working with European security policy and defense issues.
Olofsdotter also served as deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC. For three years until 2011 when she was appointed ambassador of Sweden to Hungary.
A longtime advocate for Swedish trade and diplomatic relations with the United States, Olofsdotter brings extensive experience in trade promotion to her current post. Prior to assuming the ambassador role, she served as director-general for trade at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She has also held the position of deputy director-general and head of the Department for Promotion of Sweden, Trade, and CSR at the Foreign Ministry.
Olofsdotter said she has a strong affection for the United States, having lived, studied, and worked in different parts of the country, including during a high school exchange program, as an undergraduate student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and through her various diplomatic postings.
She has a B.A. in psychology, economics and Russian, and she speaks French, Russian and English.