Derek N. Shearer was named as the US Ambassador to Finland by President Bill Clinton in February, 1994. Following confirmation, he served in that position until the end of 1997. While serving in his diplomatic post, Ambassador Shearer was on leave from Occidental College where he had served as Professor of Public Policy and Director of the school's International and Public Affairs Center, which he had founded.

During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ambassador Shearer was a senior policy advisor to Governor Bill Clinton and helped to write the campaign's economic program, Putting People First. Ambassador Shearer was appointed Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs early in 1993.

Ambassador Shearer served previously in government at the national, state and local levels. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the founding board of directors of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank. In the 1980s, he served as a city planning commissioner in Santa Monica, CA., his hometown.

Ambassador Shearer received his BA from Yale University and his Ph.D in public policy from the Union Graduate School. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Swedish Bicentennial grant, a German Marshall Fund grant among other awards. In 199l, he was named a US-Japan Leadership Fellow of the Japan Society and spent three months in Japan. He is the author of numerous books and articles on economic and international policy. His opinion pieces and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune and other publications. He has lectured at universities and research centers throughout Europe and Asia.

In 1998-99, he was a senior fellow at the Economic Strategy Institute, Washington, D.C. and in 1999-2000, he was a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Scholars Center, Washington, D.C. He has also been ambassador-in-residence at a number of colleges and a Woodrow Wilson guest lecturer. In 2001, Ambassador Shearer returned to Occidental College in Los Angeles, California as Director of Global Affairs and Professor of International Relations, responsible for all international activities of the college.

This event is part of the "Global Peace, Security, and Human Rights" lecture series being sponsored by the UC Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Global and International Studies Program, Global Peace and Security Program and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. It is being put on in partnership with the UCSB Women's Center, Santa Barbara Committee on Foreign Relations, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, PAX 2100, International Studies Association at Santa Barbara City College, and the International Studies Program at Ventura College.