Skip to main content

Stock, Judith Ann

 Person

Biographical Information

Judith Ann Stewart-Stock (b. 1946), born in Putnam, Indiana, attended Jefferson High School in Lafayette and graduated in 1964. Stock attended Purdue University where she earned a BA in Elementary Education. She went on to work as an elementary school teacher but was not satisfied with that vocation. Stock also worked as a flight attendant for Pan American Airways. During the 1980 presidential election campaign, Stock served as the Deputy Press Secretary to Vice President Walter F. Mondale. Afterward, she became the Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Relations at Bloomingdale's Department Stores.

After leaving the private sector, Stock returned to politics in 1993 as the Deputy Assistant to President Bill Clinton and the Social Secretary at the White House, a position that she held until September 1997. That month she became Vice President of Institutional Affairs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Through her work at the Kennedy Center, Stock helped to promote the Center's national and international profile and also managed the Center's International Arts Management Programs. Stock was nominated by President Barack Obama to become the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and was confirmed on June 17, 2010. She served in that role through September 2013, and worked to foster international bonds between students and professionals from the United States and abroad through the support of exchange programs in over 160 countries.

After leaving her appointed position in 2013, Stock joined the board of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, an organization that supports nonprofit arts organizations. Stock is committed to service in the non-profit sector and currently holds several leadership positions: The Women’s Foreign Policy Group (Chair), The White House Historical Association (Retail Advisory Chair), IREX, Meridian International (Co-Chair Development), and Americans for the Arts (Public Sector Task Force Chair).