Announcing Evan T. Bloom as Incoming Senior Fellow

Message from Mike Sfraga, Director of the Wilson Center's Polar Institute and Global Risk & Resilience Program

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Evan T. Bloom will join the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute as a Senior Fellow starting January 1, 2021. The staff and Fellows of the Polar Institute look forward to working closely with Mr. Bloom as we continue to address the ever-evolving policy implications of the rapidly changing polar regions. 

As a Senior Fellow, Mr. Bloom will conduct research and analysis on a number of pressing Arctic and Antarctic issues including international governance of the Antarctic and Arctic regions, the role of the Arctic Council in regional governance, maritime policies and developments under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that impact the polar regions, and the development and efficacy of marine protected areas. 

A lawyer and senior diplomat, Mr. Bloom is one of the U.S. Government’s foremost experts on Arctic and Antarctic governance and foreign policy, as well as oceans policy. During his nearly thirty years at the Department of State, Mr. Bloom served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and Fisheries (8/2019 to 9/2020) and Director of the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs (1/2010 to 12/2019 and 9/2020 to date). He led U.S. Antarctic policy as head of the U.S. delegation to the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources from 2006 to 2020. He also served as the lead U.S. negotiator for the successful establishment of the world’s largest marine protected area, in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. He helped establish the Arctic Council and supervised U.S. representation therein.