Bette Bao Lord is a best-selling author of novels and works of nonfiction that have been translated into more than fifteen languages. She is also a civic activist who serves on many boards and is currently the chair of Freedom House, an organization established in 1941 by Wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt to monitor violations of political and civil rights and to promote the growth of democratic institutions around the world. She is a frequent lecturer on the topic of foreign affairs, and, specifically, on her native country, China.