Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm will speak at the Belfast Free Library, Dec. 16, from 6:30 - 8 p.m., as part of the Camden Conference community event series.

On the morning of September 11, 2001 when hijacked jetliners brought down the World Trade Center towers, attacked the Pentagon, and killed, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm was in her first week of Arabic language training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

"The devastating attacks redefined U.S. diplomatic engagement in the Middle East and the experience of Micaela’s generation of Foreign Service Arabists, who committed years of training to become proficient in Arabic," said Camden Conference, in a news release.

In her talk at the Belfast Free Library, Schweitzer-Bluhm will recount her experiences as a U.S. diplomat working on U.S. policy in the Middle East before and in the tumultuous decade following the attacks of 9/11. 

Schweitzer-Bluhm represented the United States around the world for 26 years, leading U.S. diplomatic teams and advancing U.S. principles of democratic governance. Schweitzer-Bluhm spent most of her career in the Middle East and Southeast Europe, including as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Skopje, North Macedonia and in different capacities at the U.S. embassies in Zagreb, Cairo, Baghdad, Tunis and Kathmandu and at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. 

Schweitzer-Bluhm, her husband, and their three children have called Belfast home since 2017. On retirement from the Foreign Service,  Schweitzer-Bluhm took on a new challenge as Executive Director of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, publisher of The Maine Monitor. She is on the boards of the Maine Press, the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, the Waldo County YMCA, and the Belfast Rotary Club. 

Schweitzer-Bluhm’s presentation is hosted by the Belfast Free Library as a community event in anticipation of the 2026 Camden Conference, Today’s Middle East: Power, Politics and Players, February 20-22, live at the Camden Opera House and livestreamed to the Strand Theatre in Rockland and Lunt Auditorium in Falmouth, and to homes and classrooms worldwide. For more information about the Camden Conference and upcoming events, visit www.camdenconference.org.