WORLD TRAVELED FBI AGENT Shares Stories
at GLMS
Aaron Burch
T
he GLMS Senior Physicians Committee hosted an es-
teemed guest for their April meeting, former FBI agent
Kathy Stearman.
Stearman worked as a legal attaché overseas for several
decades in India and China. She is fluent in Chinese and
has dabbled in a half dozen other foreign languages. Her conver-
sation with GLMS physicians touched on numerous interesting
topics including FBI training, global politics and the perception of
law enforcement agencies at home and abroad.
“I wanted to see the world and do something different that wom-
en normally didn’t get to do. I decided the FBI sounded interesting.
I applied and went through interviews, polygraphs, physicals, every-
thing you have to do to get into one of these agencies,” Stearman said.
Although she began her career working in government fraud, it
wasn’t her interest. “It bored me to tears,” she plainly said. “Because
I had a background in foreign language, they gave me the Defense
Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) Test.”
The DLAB test is designed to indicate if an applicant is gifted
at looking for language clues and patterns. It uses a non-existent
language with a strict set of rules to make this determination.
Stearman aced it and was soon working in New Delhi as the FBI’s
first female legal attaché.
“I decided I’d study Chinese. It’s a challenge, and one of the hard-
est languages to learn. However, I really wanted to work overseas.
There were 20 foreign FBI field offices at the time. The competition
was fierce, and none were women.”
She was accepted and began the next stage of her career in New
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Delhi, India. After serving capably, she was transferred to Beijing,
China, where she would work for decades.
“During a meeting among attachés in India, the government
asked us to make a decision. One representative turned to me and
said, ‘What is America going to do?’ It was then I truly realized
that I represented America and not myself. When you go out as
the FBI, you represent America. That was truly something special
and a great responsibility,” she said.”
Stearman stressed that America and the FBI are largely respected
overseas. “Some countries hate us. Most do not. They either want
to be us or come here.”
She also addressed the recent defamation of the FBI in some
political circles and indicated that the hard-working men and women
of the organization are being mischaracterized.
“When I was in the FBI, I didn’t know if my best friend was
Democrat or Republican. It wasn’t discussed. Neither was religion.
It didn’t matter. Our job was to do what we could for the country.
It really breaks my heart to see the FBI portrayed in a way that’s
just not true.”
Thank you to Former Agent Kathy Stearman for speaking to
GLMS physicians.
If you’re interested in attending the next meeting of the Senior
Physicians Committee, it will be held at 10 a.m. June 4 th . Dr. John
Roth will be speaking on community service. For more information
or to RSVP, call 502-736-6326.
Aaron Burch is Communications Specialist for GLMS.