Julia Caswell

Common Roles/Uncommon Lives »

Julia Caswell was born under the oppressive environment of communist Bulgaria. However, her family was able to leave when her father was transferred to Algeria for a 2-year work assignment. Not wanting to return to Bulgaria at the end of that period, the family, through a series of miraculous events, managed to escape to France. Remarkably, years later in 1989, Julie was assigned to be the broadcaster (working for Voice of America) who would announce to the Bulgarian population, the end of communist rule. Julie’s multilingual capacities (speaking Bulgarian, English, Russian, and French) has proved valuable as she and her children moved around the world to various assignments connected to her husband’s career in the State Department, and her own professional work as teacher, translator, writer, and broadcaster.