Michele Thoren Bond is a former Assistant Secretary of State with expertise in immigration policy, strategic planning, crisis management, intercountry adoption and public advocacy. A former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho, she served as a Foreign Service Officer for 40 years.
Ambassador Bond is a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Children in DC, and a board member of Adoptions Together, a non-profit agency which assists adoptive families and promotes permanency for children in foster care. Ambassador Bond was the official face of U.S. adoptions at Embassy Moscow (1996-1998), meeting with court and orphanage officials, and appearing on public media, to counter skepticism about foreign adoptions. Following the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, she led a U.S.-Haitian initiative to accelerate the departure of hundreds of orphans whose adoptions by American families were pending when the earthquake struck. In 2015, she spearheaded an international effort to resolve a two-year suspension of adoptions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
An honors graduate of Wellesley College, Ambassador Bond earned master’s degrees at Georgetown University and the National War College. Her husband, Clifford G. Bond, is also a retired diplomat and a former U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have four adult children, and live in Washington DC.
International Student House of Washington, DC (ISH-DC) is a private, non-profit 501(c)3 organization located near Dupont Circle in the heart of Washington, DC. Donations will help support our mission to provide an exceptional residential experience to a highly diverse international community of graduate students, interns and visiting scholars. The House promotes inter-cultural dialogue, encourages life-long connections, and fosters global citizenship.