Passport Agency LeadsNew Orleans Renaissance

StateStateM A G A Z I N E

U . S . D E PA R T M E N T O F S TAT E

FEBRUARY 2006

Passport Agency LeadsNew Orleans Renaissance

State Magazine (ISSN 1099–4165) is published monthly,except bimonthly in July and August, by the U.S. Department ofState, 2201 C St., N.W., Washington, DC. Periodicals postagepaid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing locations.Send changes of address to State Magazine, HR/ER/SMG, SA-1,Room H-236, Washington, DC 20522-0108. You may alsoe-mail address changes to statemagazine@state.gov.

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Deadlines: February 15 for April 2006 issue.March 15 for May 2006 issue.

StateStateRob Wiley

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Bill PalmerWRITER/EDITOR

Jennifer LelandWRITER/EDITOR

David L. JohnstonART DIRECTOR

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Teddy B. TaylorEXECUTIVE SECRETARY

Larry Baer

Kelly Clements

Pam Holliday

Pat Patierno

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A woman carries decorations for theTet New Year celebrations to market.

Hanoi—City on the MoveIN OUR NEXT ISSUE:

2 Direct from the D.G.

3 Letters to the Editor

4 In the News

46 Safety Scene

48 Healthy Hero

49 Education and Training

50 Appointments

50 Retirements

51 Obituaries

ON THE COVERThe city of New Orleans andthe New Orleans PassportAgency rise again “out of thespent and unconsidered Earth”left by Hurricane Katrina.Photo by Corbis.

CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2006

NUMBER 498

Joining the celebration in theNew Orleans Passport Agencywere, from left, AmbassadorJoe Sullivan, New OrleansCity Councilwoman JacquelynClarkson and DeputyAssistant Secretary forHuman Resources JohnO’Keefe.

10 POST OF THE MONTH: LESOTHOThe “Kingdom in the Sky” could be a model for modern Africa.

16 OFFICE OF THE MONTH: CENTRAL AMERICAN AFFAIRSThis office keeps peace in the Western Hemisphere’s heart and soul.

19 A RECORD INDUSTRY DAYAnnual OBO event focuses on new embassy construction and “the Williams 20.”

20 WELCOME BACKNew Orleans Passport Agency proves you can go home again.

22 DEPARTMENT INNER-VIEWQ&A with Under Secretary for Management Henrietta Fore.

26 THE NEW COLOR OF MONEYU.S. Embassies help educate the world about the redesigned $10 note.

28 THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERITAGEA historical perspective on the African-American experience at State.

33 POLAND LEARNS ABOUT THE HIGHWAYMENEmbassy Warsaw outreach tells the story of a group of African-American artists.

34 LOST SISTER FOUNDU.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone helps an American family take Priscilla home.

36 FREQUENT TRAVELER LAURA BUSHThe President’s “First Ambassador” travels to support educational empowerment.

38 VIRTUAL PRESENCE POST BRAZILNew officers get leadership opportunities on virtual country teams.

40 TAXPAYER VALUEDepartment Ombudsman finds competitive sourcing cuts costs, not jobs.

43 OUNCE OF PREVENTIONCreative play teaches safety first to children at overseas posts.

44 LEARNING CURVECox program sends State officer to study “brown” management style.

20REOPENING NEW ORLEANS

2 STATE MAGAZINE

DIRECT FROM THE D.G.AMBASSADOR W. ROBERT PEARSON

On May 1, I will joinour colleagues who areretired. I am lookingforward to this new expe-rience. In fact, few of uscompletely “retire,” andthe service Department ofState retirees give ourcountry is an inspiration Iintend to follow.

Since I took the job asDirector General, we have

put into place changes essential for the Department to meetthe transnational challenges of the 21st century. Changingcircumstances, whether the threats come from failureswithin state frontiers or from events with global impact,such as disease, natural or financial disasters or terrorism,may damage international order as much as will warbetween states.

The need to plan ahead to meet accelerating change, globaldisasters or state failures inspired us to initiate bold steps.Secretary Rice’s emphasis on transformational diplomacy isabout making a genuine difference in people’s lives andshowing them that the United States is a force for good in theworld. Her leadership builds on the wonderful legacy left tous by Secretary Powell. To paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton: If wehave reached further “it is by standing on the shoulders ofgiants.” We, in turn, must become those shoulders for others.

We now have created the Office of the Coordinator forReconstruction and Stabilization, set up Employee ProfilePlus, implemented new career development plans andlaunched initiatives to support our families. The next majordevelopment will come with the global repositioning of ourpersonnel to target those countries and areas presenting thegreatest probability for harm or benefit.

In addition, the Department now has a fully developed ori-entation program for our newly hired Civil Servicecolleagues, the most admired Presidential ManagementFellows program in Washington, an impressively popularstudent loan repayment program, one of the most activementoring programs in the Federal service and a number ofpilot programs under way to give Civil Service colleaguesmore career flexibility.

The Department still attracts huge numbers to our annualwritten exam for the Foreign Service. Minority hiring fromexam passers is now higher than it has ever been, 19 percentcompared to 13 percent in 2000, but this is only a spur toincrease our representation of African-American andHispanic personnel. Women comprise nearly 50 percent ofour entering classes, another historic high; our goal now is toretain these colleagues into our middle and senior ranks. I

believe presenting America’s richly diverse culture to theworld is one of the very best ways to reflect our truest values.

When I arrived more than two years ago, we committed toa fundamentally innovative approach with our retirees. Nowwe have RNet firmly established, with electronic pay state-ments, e-forms and annuity calculators. The fully electronicretirement application process is arriving soon. Thesechanges will allow our professional staff to advise andcounsel rather than track paperwork.

Families with two incomes now are the norm, not theexception. Only one-third of our spouses are working over-seas, and often at jobs that do not match their skills. Wehave established new programs for portable businesses andhave partnered with major corporations and executivesearch firms, like Manpower, Inc., to give our spouses betteropportunities. This remains the single most difficult chal-lenge I faced, and it will continue to require enormouseffort and support—from the Secretary and her leadershipand from you.

The loss of pay because of locality pay rules suffered by ournon-senior FS colleagues going overseas is a burning injusticeremaining to be addressed. I would like to express my appre-ciation to the Secretary, who has taken this issue on directlyand who has brought us to the brink of a solution.

We need new skills if we are to deal with the challengesahead. Eliminating global HIV-AIDS calls for new profes-sional and organizational talents. So will any outbreak ofavian flu—or some other pandemic. The capabilities neededto respond to disasters such as earthquakes in Pakistan,tsunamis in Southeast Asia or hurricanes in Central America,not to mention man-made catastrophes, blur the bordersbetween Foreign Service and Civil Service, and between Stateand our sister agencies, such as USAID, Agriculture andCommerce. Language, program management and crisisresponse skills will increasingly gain importance.

People ask me if State continues to attract the best and thebrightest. Having managed the recruiting of exceptionalAmericans these last two years, I know our Department isstronger than ever. In fact, I think the challenge is notwhether we are recruiting the best and the brightest butwhether we will find the resources, the training and the jobopportunities required to fulfill the promise our new col-leagues bring to the Department.

Looking forward, our task as a country and as a diplomat-ic service is to take the successes achieved and the values wehold dear and make them accessible to people everywherewho seek the same things. That’s a big challenge, but meetingit would make an enormous difference in the world. It hasbeen a great pleasure to help build this future with the helpand support of lots of wonderful people—all of you. Thankyou, goodbye and good luck. �

Thank you, Goodbye and Good Luck

DACOR Educational GrantsMany thanks for running the

announcement of the Dreyfus Awards(December). We appreciate yoursupport of this program, which benefitsdependents of Foreign Service officers.

The DACOR Foundation also offersfellowships and scholarships to studentsstudying international relations.Reflecting the DACOR membership’scommitment to education and scholar-ship, after academic year 2006–2007 thefoundation will have awarded nearly $2million in educational grants over thepast decade, funded by individualbequests and contributions as well aswithdrawals from our investments. Foracademic year 2006–2007 alone we areallocating $185,000. While it is not arequirement, we look favorably to thoseseeking to enter the Foreign Service andwe are always delighted to hear thatsome of the recipients have indeedpursued Foreign Service careers.

Sherry Barndollar RockProgram and Development CoordinatorDACOR Bacon HouseWashington, D.C.

Peace on Earth?I was shocked to see the cover of State

Magazine for December. It is somewhathypocritical to depict “Peace on Earth.”The U.S., in invading a sovereigncountry, directly caused the deaths of30,000 Iraqis (these are the figures of theU.S. President), not to mention the2,500 young American soldiers killed to

“realize a vision of a world where libertyand prosperity, democratic principlesand human rights enrich the lives of allpeople—a world of greater justice inforeign lands andgreater security inours.” Needless to say,one cannot expect torealize this vision whenthe U.S. invades sover-eign countries and killsthousands of people.

Kenneth WinterhalterRetired ForeignService OfficerWilliamsburg, Va.

EnhancedRetirement Package

I read with satisfaction the JanuaryState Magazine piece titled “InAppreciation,” highlighting the newrecognition package for retiring person-nel. For years, State didn’t do enough toofficially recognize the contributions ofretiring employees. The enhancementsto the retirement recognition programare encouraging and much appreciated.Indeed, presenting all retiring employ-ees with a crystal replica of MarshallFredrick’s “Expanding Universe” sculp-ture, found in the Truman Building’sdiplomatic entrance courtyard, seemsespecially appropriate and meaningful.

Fredrick’s sculpture always remindedme of Dean Acheson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Present at the Creation,recalling the Department’s transcendent

diplomacy of the late 1940s and early1950s. The sculpture fittingly symbol-izes to all entering the Truman Buildingthat Department employees are key

players in such a continu-ing creation.

I have another, morepersonal affection forFredrick’s sculpture. WhenI started working at State,my now deceased Air Forcefather told me a tale fromthe halls of the Pentagonabout the ExpandingUniverse sculpture. He saidthe original design of theglobe included the earth’scontinental outlines. State

insisted that the sculptor remove theseoutlines because the mythological crea-ture’s posterior would have been seateddirectly on the Soviet Union!

Dan SheerinBureau of Information ResourceManagement

3FEBRUARY 2006

FROM THE EDITORUnder Secretary of for Management Henrietta Fore

leads six major bureaus and several offices responsible forthe Department’s people, resources, facilities, technologyand security. She talks about her big job in an exclusiveState Magazine “Department Inner-View.”

On a balmy December day near the end of 2005, part ofthe New Orleans Passport Agency family met in celebra-tion of what Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs MauraHarty called its courage, heart and imagination. The city ofNew Orleans added a hearty “Welcome Home!”

African-American participation in the Departmentbegan early and grew slowly but surely despite obstaclesand setbacks. The Department’s historian takes us throughthe historical perspective of that long journey.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Correction

In the January issue, the photo withthe story “Bosnia Seminar Focuses onHealth Care for Aging Populations” onpage 8 incorrectly identified the manon the left as Ambassador DouglasMcElhaney. He is Lt. Col. RichardMcConoughey of the MarylandNational Guard. He and his staffhelped run the seminar.

4 STATE MAGAZINE

I N T H E N E W S

The U.S. Mission to Italy has developed a web site withinformation about the upcoming 2006 Winter Olympics inTurin. The XXth Winter Olympic Games will take placeFeb 10–26 and the IXth Paralympic Games March 10–19 inTurin and the surrounding Piedmont region in northwest-ern Italy.

The web site, launched last fall, features general informa-tion and useful links about Olympic events and tickets,consular services for U.S. citizens, travel safety and security

concerns, commercial opportunities for U.S. busi-nesses and media and press information. There isalso useful information on travel and tourism, cul-

tural events involving the United States and otherimportant notices for U.S. citizens traveling to Turin

and other regions in Italy for the games.The web site is accessible at http://olympics2006.state.

gov and through the U.S. Mission to Italy and the ConsulateGeneral in Milan home pages: http://italy.usembassy.govand http://milan.usconsulate.gov.

OnlineU.S. Mission Launches TurinWinter Olympics Web Site

GOLD

5FEBRUARY 2006

I N T H E N E W S

Secretary Asks Retirees to Help Recruit Their SuccessorsRetiring and recently retired

Department employees braved amid-December snowstorm togather in the Dean AchesonAuditorium and hear SecretaryCondoleezza Rice call them “thebackbone of American foreignpolicy for decades.”

Noting that the service of someof the honorees stretched backnine presidencies—to PresidentKennedy—Secretary Rice thanked

them for making the world a freerand more hopeful place andAmerica more secure.

“Your legacy will live onthrough those who succeed you,”she said, adding that “it will behard to imagine how we will fillyour shoes in the years to come.”

She urged their support inrecruiting their successors. Sheasked them, when meetingyoung people who remind them

of their younger selves, to “tellthem how fulfilling a life of serviceis and tell them how essential it isto America’s future.”

Director General RobertPearson noted that the attendeesrepresented a cumulative total ofmore than 5,000 years of service.

The retirees each had theirphoto taken with Secretary Rice,then adjourned to a reception inthe Benjamin Franklin Room.

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY ACADEMY HONORS STATEOn December 8, The American Academy of Diplomacy

awarded its 2005 Walter and Leonore Annenberg Award forExcellence in Diplomacy to the men and women of theDepartment of State.

Retired Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, chairman ofthe American Academy of Diplomacy board of directors,presented the award at the academy’s 16th annualDiplomatic Awards Luncheon in the Benjamin FranklinDining Room. It was accepted by Under Secretary forPolitical Affairs R. Nicholas Burns on behalf of theDepartment.

For the first time, the academy presented the award to agroup rather than an individual. Ambassador Pickering

noted that the award was meant for all “those men andwomen of the Foreign and Civil Service serving on the frontline in dangerous and challenging places around the world,highlighting the role of diplomacy in national security.”

In accepting the award, Under SecretaryBurns gave special recognition to “ouremployees taking on dangerous jobs indemanding environments… in which theymust perform tasks that were perhaps notenvisioned even five years ago.” He alsonoted the key roles of public diplomacy,leadership and good management.

“We need a well-rounded ForeignService,” Mr. Burns said. “We have to askour junior Foreign Service officers to beintellectuals and policy realists at thesame time.”

The academy also presented the follow-ing awards:

• The Arthur Ross Award for distin-guished reporting and analysis on foreignaffairs to Barbara Demick, bureau chief ofthe Los Angeles Times in Seoul, Korea, andto James Boyd, correspondent and editori-al writer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

• The Douglas Dillon Award for a bookof distinction on the practice of American diplomacy to JoelWit, Daniel Poneman and Robert Gallucci for Going Critical:The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis.

• Special recognition to Gordon Brown for Toussaint’sClause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution.

Ambassadors Ellsworth Bunker and U. Alexis Johnsonfounded the American Academy of Diplomacy as a nonprof-it and nonpartisan organization in 1983 for men and womenwho have formulated and implemented U.S. foreign policy.

Under Secretary R. Nicholas Burns, right, accepts the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Awardfrom Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering.

6 STATE MAGAZINE

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INR ANALYSTS RECEIVE ADVANCED TRAININGIn the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, members of Congress

expressed interest in providing incentives for the recruit-ment and development of new analysts for the intelligencecommunity. One such program is the Pat Roberts

Intelligence Scholars Program, which provides partici-pants up to $50,000 over two years for training in criticalskills in exchange for a government service requirement ofone and a half times the period of scholarship support.

This year, for the first time, seven analysts from theBureau of Intelligence and Research are benefiting fromthe program, named for Republican Senator Pat Robertsof Kansas, chairman of the Senate Select Committee onIntelligence. Their training includes doctoral studies ineconomics (Al Wood and Matt Ewald), a masters’program in knowledge management (Dennis King) andlanguage/area studies in Farsi (Danusia Hubah), Arabic(Steven Feinberg), Kazakh (Susan Feinberg) and Russian(Janine Ellison).

“This program is a wonderful resource for deepeningINR’s analytic strength,” said Acting Assistant SecretaryCarol Rodley. “Our analysts benefit from fully fundedtraining; the Bureau, the State Department and the intel-ligence community benefit from their added expertise.The program is tremendously valuable as a recruitmentand retention tool, and I hope that INR analysts will beable to participate every year.”

Five of INR’s PRISP scholars meet with Senator Roberts at his Capitoloffice in December to discuss their programs. Standing, from left:Janine Ellison, Al Wood, Senator Roberts, Susan Feinberg and MattEwald. Seated: Danusia Hubah.

The human suffering resulting fromHurricanes Katrina and Rita touched

the hearts of many people overseas,including Department employees.Some of the reports of contributionsand condolences that reached StateMagazine include the following:

Cambodia: In a visit to the studiosof Beehive FM 105 Radio in PhnomPenh, U.S. Ambassador JosephMussomeli accepted on behalf ofthe American Red Cross a donationof $1,083 in support of hurricanerelief efforts. Beehive Radio raisedthese funds through an on-airpledge drive and by collecting dona-tions from its staff. In accepting thedonation, Ambassador Mussomelirecounted the parable of “TheWidow’s Mite” and stated that, in thesame way, this contribution wasworth more than larger donationsfrom richer nations because ordinaryCambodians gave “more than theycould afford.”

He also recently accepted a dona-tion of $1,000 from the mission’sLocal Employee Committee, raised

through contributions from missionstaff and a T-shirt sale.

Paraguay: The U.S. Embassy inAsunción hosted a pancake breakfastto raise funds for the victims ofHurricane Katrina. Ambassador JohnKeane and Deputy Chief of MissionKevin Johnson served pancakes. Thefood was donated and more than$500 was raised.

Mongolia: Ambassador PamelaSlutz received contributions forHurricane Katrina victims from theForeign Service National Association,represented by its president, HorlooBulgan, and the executive board.

Nigeria: The Foreign ServiceNational Committee presentedAmbassador John Campbell with acondolence card titled “Our HeartsBleed” following Hurricane Katrina.Ambassador Campbell said he wasdeeply touched and promised totransmit the message throughWashington to the mayor ofNew Orleans.

HELPINGHANDS

FROMABROAD

7FEBRUARY 2006

I N T H E N E W S

Department, AAFSW Honor Overseas VolunteersIn a December ceremony in the Benjamin Franklin Room,

Director General Robert Pearson presented the Associates ofthe American Foreign Service Worldwide/Secretary of State’sAward for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad to the follow-ing recipients, chosen from a record 30 nominations:

Robert Blumberg (Colombo, Sri Lanka) responded to theneeds of countless animals roaming loose after the SriLankan tsunami and recognized the danger of rabies posedby unvaccinated pets. The coalition group he founded vacci-nated more than 14,000 animals. He also foundedthe Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust toimplement a long-term sterilization program andfind homes for pets whose owners had been killed.

Robi Keyes (Bangkok, Thailand) helped prosti-tutes in a Thai beauty shop and later she andseveral others founded “NightLight,” an organiza-tion that provides alternative employment,English instruction and a place to heal for girlswho want to leave prostitution. She wrote a grantproposal for the growth of the project and helpedwrite bylaws and plan for long-term funding andleadership of “NightLight.” She also used hernursing skills to recognize symptoms of illness,provide health counseling and reach out to themedical community.

Jaimee Neel (São Paulo, Brazil), whose back-ground in inner-city teaching sensitized her to theplight of São Paolo’s 4,500 street children, broughther colleagues in contact with kids of the SantaAmaro Youth Home, a shelter that teaches street childrenprofessional skills. Jaimee applied for and received a J. KirbySimon Foreign Service Trust grant, and to date the home hasreceived a dental clinic, a computer lab, two washingmachines, a small adjacent house and countless toys and sup-plies due to the snowball effect of her fund-raising.

Sandra Patterson (Lusaka, Zambia) worked extensivelywith the HEAL project, a support facility and school formore than 60 children who have lost one or both parents toHIV/AIDS. She transported ill children to clinics andenrolled them in appropriate HIV/AIDS programs, includ-ing testing and anti-retroviral treatment. Responding to theessential need in a nearby neighborhood for toilet facilities,Sandra obtained a J. Kirby Simon Trust grant for the con-struction of a well and toilets. She created “HealingStitches,” a project that teaches women to sew and sell theirgoods. She also helped raise money for wheelchairs foryoung children.

Eglal Rousseau (Rabat, Morocco) used her language skillsto advocate for young patients and their families at thenearby children’s hospital, where many are cut off frominformation and assistance by illiteracy or an inability to

communicate in French. She helped renovate an activityroom and formed a partnership between the hospital and anassociation that cares for children beyond the capacity oflocal orphanages. Eglal also helped hearing-impaired youngadults through the el Nassr Association and worked toobtain a donation of land needed to construct a profession-al/social center.

Mark Wilson (Skopje, Macedonia) showed extraordinaryconcern for the residents of Macedonia’s mental health facil-

ities. His project “Computers to Classrooms” improves thetechnology available to these residents and to disadvantagedchildren attending rural schools. He not only solicited dona-tions of IT equipment, but also spent hundreds of hourscollecting, refurbishing, setting up and networking theequipment so that the mental health facility now has twofully equipped computer labs with Internet connectivity. Helaid the foundation of a digital culture among the studentsand helped them acquire knowledge and skills that enablethem to be productive members of their communities.

Director General Pearson said the volunteers “representwhat we would all say are wonderful American values.”

These annual awards recognize employees and familymembers at embassies and consulates who voluntarily havegiven exceptional service to their communities—hostcountry or expatriate—or rendered outstanding service inemergencies. The awards were initiated in 1990 throughefforts of then-Secretary and Mrs. James Baker and havebeen supported also by Ambassador Stephen Green andothers. AAFSW (www.aafsw.org) administers the awards andfunding (each recipient received $2,500) in cooperation withDepartment officials.

Director General Pearson, left, poses with award winners Mark Wilson, SandraPatterson, Jaimee Neel, Robi Keyes and Robert Blumberg. The sixth winner,Eglal Rousseau, could not attend.

8 STATE MAGAZINE

I N T H E N E W S

‘Virtual’ Walk to Timbuktu Keeps Embassy Niamey Staff FitThe place most U.S. Embassy people in sandy Niamey

go running is a course around the main stadium. But itwas declared off limits to joggers in preparation for the 5thFrancophone Games, a politically and culturally impor-tant event for this impoverished but stable anddemocratic country. (Niger is the poorest country inthe world, according to the U.N. Development Index.)

Facilities Manager Clifford Adams sent out an e-mail asking how many people would be interested ina walking/jogging path and was pleasantly surprisedwith the overwhelming support for the idea. With thehelp of his maintenance team, he discovered that abasic walking path could be laid out with minimalcapital outlay. In a matter of days, the team created agood, safe path within the 11 acres of the embassycompound.

To encourage full use of the new track, the healthunit distributed pedometers and announced its “Walkto Timbuktu” fitness program, a simple and fun wayto get fit and manage weight.

Foreign Service Health Practitioner Jim Dickeymodeled this walking program on a similar programdeveloped by the health unit in the U.S. Embassy inDhaka called “Walk to Katmandu” (State Magazine,September 2004). Coincidentally, the distance fromDhaka to Katmandu and the distance from Niamey toTimbuktu are virtually the same—450 miles or a millionsteps, ideal for a pedometer-based exercise program.

The goal is to induce participants to gradually increasetheir daily walking, aiming for an average of 10,000 steps aday. Studies have shown that this degree of exercise, whencoupled with sensible eating, will result in sustainableweight loss in most people. The catch phrase for theNiamey program is “Walk those pounds to Timbuktu.”

More than 50 people have gone to the health unit toreceive pedometers and get their blood pressure, weightand height measured, and their body mass index calculat-ed. Mr. Dickey helps them set a target and gives them ideas

for getting fit and managing their weight. He then setsthem off on their virtual way to Timbuktu.

Participants are taking those healthy extra steps toreach Timbuktu and cross the million-step frontier, pos-sibly in a few months’ time or even sooner. The personwho gets there first will receive a specially designed T-shirt. In any case, the community itself is a winner, thanksto the efficient work of the facilities maintenance staff andmedical unit.

Embassy staff members take advantage of the new walking path duringtheir lunch break. From left, Heather Watson, Salamata Ayite, Amina Aboul-Moumni and Jennifer Bowens.

RECYCLING HELPS FAMILIES SEND KIDS TO DIPLOTOTSState Department recycling of paper, cans and glass is not

just good for the environment—it helps families cover thecost of quality child care at Diplotots, the Department’s childcare center.

Diplotots costs from $700 to $1,000 per month, dependingon the age of the child. The Diplotots board of directorsmanages a program that provides tuition assistance each yearfor 15 to 20 children. The program is funded primarily byCombined Federal Campaign contributions and theDepartment’s recycling program.

Last year, recycling efforts generated $63,000, making itpossible for parents from a wide range of income levels tosend their children to the same high-quality program. In

2005, nearly one-quarter of families receiving tuition assis-tance earned less than $20,000. The board covers about 65percent of the tuition for those families. The average annualincome for a family with one child receiving assistance is$33,000. The average award given to a family is just over $300per month.

Funds are also used to permit children who receive tuitionassistance to participate in the day care center’s extracurric-ular activities, such as gymnastics, swimming and field trips,and to provide special learning opportunities for all the chil-dren in the center.

So toss paper, cans or glass into a recycling bin. It’s goodfor the earth and good for children.

9FEBRUARY 2006

I N T H E N E W S

Embassy Cambodians Extend a Helping Hand to OthersAs everybody who has served in

an embassy knows, the LocallyEmployed staff play a critical rolein supporting American ForeignService personnel. The CambodianLE staff in Phnom Penh take thissupport one level further.

Through an organization calledthe Local Employee Community,the Cambodian staff have created amechanism to give financialsupport to Cambodian causes andalso help with disasters in theUnited States and elsewhere.The LEC recently presentedAmbassador Joseph Mussomeliwith a $1,000 check to help victimsof Hurricane Katrina (Page 6). Ithas also reached out to LE staff inother parts of the world, support-ing colleagues after the terroristattacks in Jeddah, Nairobi and Dares Salaam.

The LEC helps Cambodians, as well. It was created to “linkthe enclosed embassy community to the outside communi-ty,” says Chea Sokha, the founder. The LEC provides foodand clothing to families and has built 24 wells in impover-ished communities. It is working with Greg Buford, thespouse of an American officer who got a grant from the J.Kirby Simon Trust, to build 12 more wells and a library for arural school. In the future, the LEC hopes to build morelibraries and perhaps purchase playground equipment forrural schools.

The LEC provides support to the Cambodian LE staff.Staffers can take out low-interest loans from the LEC, theinterest of which is used to support the charitable projectsand organize occasional community social functions.Financial support is also provided to those in the communi-ty during an emergency.

The Cambodian LE staff have raised more than $120,000since 1996. This tremendous sum is even more impressive,considering that Cambodia has a per capita income of only$321 a year.

The Local Employee Community in Phnom Penh presents Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli with a$1,000 check to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

LAST CALL FOR 2006 AFSA AWARD NOMINATIONSThe American Foreign Service Association urges

Department personnel to take the time to nominate someonewho should be recognized publicly for having the initiative,integrity and intellectual courage to take risks and go againstconventional wisdom to stand up for his or her beliefs.

AFSA’s Constructive Dissent Awards honor people whohave exhibited the courage to speak out and challenge thesystem from within. The four awards are: the Christian A.Herter Award for senior Foreign Service officers, the WilliamR. Rivkin Award for mid-career officers (FS 1-3), the W.Averell Harriman Award for junior officers (FS 4-6) and theTex Harris Award for Foreign Service specialists.

The awards, established in 1968, recognize extraordinaryachievement and integrity not covered by the extensive awardsprogram of the Department or other foreign affairs agencies.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Feb. 24.Further information on criteria and format is available onthe AFSA web site, www.afsa.org/awards.cfm, or fromBarbara Berger, AFSA’s coordinator for professional issues, atberger@afsa.org or (202) 338-4045, ext. 521.

AFSA also offers three other awards: the Delavan Award fora Foreign Service office management specialist who has madean extraordinary contribution to effectiveness, professional-ism and morale; the M. Juanita Guess Award for a communityliaison officer who has demonstrated outstanding dedication,energy and imagination in assisting families of Americansserving overseas; and the Avis Bohlen Award for a familymember of a Foreign Service employee whose relations withthe American and foreign communities at post have done themost to advance the interests of the United States.

A Basotho horseman wearing a traditionalLesotho blanket surveys the countryside.

11FEBRUARY 2006

P O S T O F T H E M O N T H

LESOTHOBy Jed Dornburg

‘KINGDOM IN THE SKY’ COULD BE AN AFRICAN MODEL

12 STATE MAGAZINE

The legendary 19th-century King Moshoeshoe—an inno-vator, warrior, diplomat, populist and democrat—broughttogether disparate groups to form a fledgling nation at a timeof strife when Shaka Zulu, the Boers and the English werecolonizing an area that would become modern South Africa.

Moshoeshoe raised his small but great nation, character-ized by a leadership style of community meetings. Byentering into diplomatic ties with England, Lesotho, orBasutoland as it was called then, became a British protec-torate, thereby preventing its incorporation into SouthAfrica. Lesotho was thus spared South Africa’s period ofapartheid and became a sanctuary for many South Africansfighting discrimination.

Lesotho is one of the most homogeneous countries inAfrica, with 99.7 percent of the population identifying them-selves as Basotho. It is also one of the most mountainous. Thecapital, Maseru, rises to approximately 5,500 feet above sea

level and lies in a crescent-shaped area known as the “low-lands,” that runs along the eastern and southeastern borderof the country. The Maluti Mountains run from north tocenter and along the western regions, with the highest pointa towering 11,316 feet.

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Christmas Party at the CMR. From left, Special Projects AssistantMalipholo Sepitla, Special Projects Coordinator Barbara Albrecht, Deputy

Chief of Mission Karl Albrecht, Ambassador June Carter Perry,Econ/Comm Specialist Moroesi Akhionbare, Public Diplomacy AssistantMamosa Mapeshoane and Office Management Specialist Connie Baker.

Basotho in blankets and hats celebrate visit offood security administrators.

Noka e tlatsoa ke linokana (A great riveris made up of little ones)—Sesotho saying.

13FEBRUARY 2006

A T A G L A N C E

SOURCE: CIA World Factbook 2006

Country name: Lesotho

Capital: Maseru

Government: parliamentary constitutionalmonarchy

Independence: October 4, 1966 (from theUnited Kingdom)

Languages: Sesotho, English, Zulu and Xhosa

Population: 1.8 million

Total area: 30,350 square kilometers

Approximate size: Slightly larger thanMaryland

Currency: loti (LSL) and South Africanrand (ZAR)

HIV/AIDS rate: 28.9 percent

Export partners: United States (97 percent)and Canada (2.1 percent)

Export commodities: Clothing, footwear,vehicles, wool and food products

Seasonal rivers form all over the mountains, provide thesource of the Orange River and fill the Katse and Mohalereservoirs. Lesotho is home to Maletsunyane Falls, thehighest single-drop waterfall in southern Africa, thunderingfrom a height of 624 feet. The lofty highlands give Lesotho itspopular epithet, “Kingdom in the Sky.”

Lesotho is a good fit with U.S. policy goals in Africa suchas promoting democratic values, free market economiesand health.

The country got high marks on the Millennium ChallengeAccount evaluation in government effectiveness, rule of law,public voice, accountability and control of corruption. It isthe largest African textile exporter to the U.S., netting morethan $450 million in both 2004 and 2005, and is one of thesuccess stories of the African Growth and Opportunity Act,which President Bush extended to 2015.

Democracy, health and economics are interdependent;the development of a national health plan requires sus-tained economic growth and an accountable government.A healthy population will provide the voting and workingbase to support democracy, a vibrant civil society and eco-nomic growth.

HIV/AIDS is perhaps the most pressing challenge. Thiscountry of 2 million people has a 20 to 30 percent infectionrate, third highest in the world. Women between the ages of15 and 24 have an HIV-positive rate of almost 40 percent.

Lesotho’s leadership is outspoken in its dedication to com-bating HIV/AIDS. The President’s Emergency Plan forHIV/AIDS Relief has more than doubled the resources tocombat the pandemic to $7 million in the past year. Thisfigure is significantly supplemented by assistance from theU.S. Agency for International Development, State and othergovernment agencies.

Lesotho has nearly 200,000 orphans and vulnerable chil-dren, accounting for a tenth of the country’s population.Traditionally, Basotho society supported needy children, butit has become apparent that a society decimated by HIVcannot provide for the needs of so many children.

The embassy is assisting children who have been orphanedor victimized by HIV/AIDS. In addition, the Ambassador’sGirls Scholarship Program provided $37,000 in scholarshipsto 110 girls in 2005, giving them a chance to pursue theirdreams and become AIDS free.

The embassy is joined in the fight to stem the tide ofHIV/AIDS in Lesotho by a number of American universitiesand nongovernmental organizations, that are workingon behavior change, testing and counseling, and income-generating activities for affected populations. Bristol-MeyersSquibb and the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation haveestablished pediatric clinics and facilities for the care andtreatment of children afflicted by HIV/AIDS.

In less than a decade, the country has gone from a militaryjunta to a democratically elected government. Since theelection-related political turmoil of 1998, Lesotho has madegreat strides in democracy and governance. The 2002 generalelections were judged by international, regional and localobservers to be free, fair and without violence.

14 STATE MAGAZINE

In April 2005, Lesotho began a process of decen-tralization of power, holding the first localgovernment elections since independence. Theelections were conducted peacefully and brought astartling development to Lesotho’s political culture.Of the roughly 2,000 locally elected governmentcouncilors, more than 50 percent were women. Theembassy supported training and sensitization pro-grams before the election and is engaged with thenewly elected councilors, one of whom will visitthe United States on an International Visitor grantto study local government.

Gender equity remains a challenge. Basothowomen hold cabinet seats, occupy positions ofinfluence in all the ministries, sit as judges, pilotaircraft in the Lesotho National Defense Forcesand own many of the businesses, but work withina constraining traditional social structure.Through customary law, married women are con-sidered legal minors, although in practiceprofessional women are on equal footing withmale colleagues. The embassy is working with the

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Right: Political Specialist Thabang Tlalajoe and Public Affairs Officer Jed T.Dornburg conducting observation of historic first Local Government elec-tions. Below left: Tseliso Lipholo in traditional Lesotho blanket chats withProcurement Clerk Tebalo Letseka at a staff barbeque party. Below right:Ambassador June Carter Perry greets a young Special Self-Help Fundbeneficiary at a school supported by the Embassy.

Lesotho is a depository ofimpressive cave wall art.

15FEBRUARY 2006

government and international community to advancechange in the legal status of women.

In important ways Lesotho has been a success story inAfrica. AGOA has brought growth in the textile industry. Inearly 2005, Ambassador June Carter Perry led the first tradedelegation of Lesotho government officials and manufactur-ing and union representatives to the United States to boost thetextile industry and promote diversification. The trip solidi-fied U.S. companies’ orders from Lesotho.

Lesotho’s eligibility to compete for Millennium ChallengeAccount funds in 2004, 2005 and 2006 reflects the country’sprogress on democratization and economic reform. Work isproceeding toward a potential compact that would addresspoverty reduction.

After a successful 2004 visit by Deputy Secretary RobertZoellick, the U.S. Embassy in Maseru is expected to grow incoming years to promote presidential initiatives such as thePresident’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and AGOA.

As in any developing country, Lesotho presents challengesfor embassy families and the nearly 100 Peace Corps volun-teers and staff. High crime rates and limited services cansometimes be trying, but these same challenges also provideopportunities. Information Management Officer DanielSiebert has spent many hours volunteering to set up a com-

puter lab for Lesotho Opportunities Incorporated. The com-munity liaison officer is developing a training program incultural heritage management for the Morija Museum andArchives, the only functioning museum in the country.Deputy Chief of Mission Karl Albrecht, Special ProjectsCoordinator Barbara Albrecht and Frederick Perry, husbandof the ambassador, volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.

The spectacular mountains, scenery and native Basothoculture offer rich rewards. Many staff members have enjoyedhiking, pony trekking and staying in Lesotho’s friendly lodges.The Basotho’s mesmerizing dances, colorful blankets and hatsand rhythmic verse provide a unique cultural experience.

Lesotho has the potential of becoming a model in Africaduring the 21st century. The country recognizes futureachievements are possible in partnership with the UnitedStates and other development partners to overcome the chal-lenges of HIV/AIDS, enhance democracy and goodgovernance and boost economic development. Progress ineach of these “tributaries” can turn Lesotho into a great river.

Khotso! Pula! Nala! (Peace and rain bring prosperity)—Basotho saying. �

The author is the public affairs and consular officer as well as apolitical officer at the U.S. Embassy in Maseru.

River gorge near Malealea village.

O F F I C E O F T H E M O N T H

The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs enjoys a well-deserved reputation as the responsible caretaker of therelationships with our closest neighbors. While NorthAmerica is the hemisphere’s broad shoulders and theSouthern Cone the swinging hips, Central America is thehemisphere’s abdomen, its heart and soul. And the Office ofCentral American Affairs has the challenging task of manag-ing the heartbeat of the bilateral relationship with the sevencountries of the isthmus: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

No longer the region of the “guayabera and gunfire,”Central America’s evolving democracies enjoy bilateral rela-tionships with the United States characterized by maturityand serious give-and-take.

In fact, the relationship is so close that CEN’s staff of 13—director, deputy, eight desk officers and three officemanagement specialists—deals with issues increasingly tran-scending foreign policy. Close human and economic tiesmake many Central American issues as much U.S. domesticissues as international. Together with our ambassadors andsuperb embassy staffs, CEN works hard to highlight the pos-itive relationship with our regional friends and allies.

Growth EngineThe United States–Central American Free Trade

Agreement is a prime example of the kind of transforma-tional diplomacy that characterizes our engagement with theregion. CAFTA passage and implementation will strengthen

CENTRAL AMERICAN AFFAIRS:KEEPING PEACE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

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Honduras Desk Officer Marcos Mandojana, right, briefs Honduran DCM Ramon Custodio, left, and Ambassador Norman Garcia.

16 STATE MAGAZINE

the ability of Central Americannations to remain democratic, stableand prosperous economic partners.The United States and five of the sixother signatory countries have nowpassed CAFTA.

The freer trade resulting fromCAFTA will be an important enginefor regional growth and investmentas U.S. products and companiesenter more easily into thoseeconomies. More important, theagreement requires institutionalchanges aimed at encouragingbroad-based growth and reformwithin the signatory countries.

Central America is also a marqueeregion for Millennium ChallengeAccount agreements. In June 2005,Honduras became the second country in the world to sign anMCA compact, which will provide $215 million over fiveyears for improving road infrastructure, agricultural diversi-fication and market access. Together with CAFTA ratificationand significant debt relief, Honduras now has a concreteopportunity to reduce its extreme poverty.

Nicaragua also signed an MCA compact for $175 milliondesigned to overcome obstacles to economic growth bysecuring property rights, improving business productivity inthe agricultural sector and building infrastructure. Fifteenyears after its democratic transition, Nicaragua has madeimportant strides in developing democratic institutions andpromoting a market economy, and our top bilateral priority

there—as in the rest of Central America—remains strength-ening democracy through the development of transparent,accountable and professional government institutions.

Immigration IssuesImmigration is an issue of increasing importance to CEN.

Central America comes in second only to Mexico in thenumber of immigrants living in the United States, whichstrongly colors the bilateral relationships with most coun-tries in the region. Estimates have one of every fourSalvadorans living in the U.S., sending home remittances thataccount for almost 20 percent of El Salvador’s gross nationalproduct. Large communities of Hondurans and

17FEBRUARY 2006

Office name: Office of Central American Affairs

Symbol: WHA/CEN

Office Director: David Lindwall

Deputy Director: Benjamin Ziff

Staff size: 13

Office location: Harry S Truman Building, Room 5906

A T A G L A N C E

Panama Desk Officer GregSchiffer, left, shows a photo of thePanama Canal to Nicaragua DeskOfficer Brendon Baird.

18 STATE MAGAZINE

O F F I C E O F T H E M O N T H

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Guatemalans also play a role in the United States and in thehuman and economic relationship with the region. Thisextensive human connection involves CEN deeply in intera-gency discussions on immigration, consular representation,labor and tourism.

As Central American democracies distance themselvesfrom the domestic conflicts of the 1980s, CEN encouragesand supports democratic elections in the region. Over the

coming year, Costa Rica, ElSalvador and Nicaragua willhave important national elec-tions. CEN is working closelywith the Organization ofAmerican States and thedonor community to supportelection observation andinfrastructure support.

But democracy is morethan elections; it is alsomaking sure that elections arenot just a façade for “corrup-tion as usual.” While CentralAmerica does not lead theworld in corruption, CENdoes lead the Department inthe application of 212(f) visarevocations for corruption,depriving corrupt officials oftheir treasured privilege ofvisiting the United States.

On the domestic front, thispast summer was especiallychallenging for our smallteam, with CEN preparing sixnew ambassadors and fivenew deputy chiefs of missionto take the helm of theirembassies.

CEN is proud of ourrecently created SIPRNet webpage. It serves as a fact sheetand newsletter, updated regu-larly, to share informationwith our embassies abroad.CEN also keeps an electronic

photo gallery of news and noteworthy events that occur inthe Central American region and here at home, all in thename of spotlighting our contribution to the Department’sobjectives of strengthening democracy and economic oppor-tunity globally. �

All 13 members of the Office of Central American Affairs staffcontributed to this article.

Top: Desk officers Melissa Kopolow,left, and Jason Mack, far right, con-gratulate new Ambassador andMrs. Mark Langdale just after hisswearing-in ceremony. Bottom:From right, intern Whitney Noel,OMS Cindy Prince and OMS EstherMayberry check in guests for oneof six ambassadorial swearing-inceremonies.

19FEBRUARY 2006

The fourth annual Overseas Buildings OperationsIndustry Day late last fall drew a record crowd to theCrystal City Marriott Hotel. Focusing on new embassy con-struction, the event drew almost 1,000 industry contractorswho provide services for OBO’s nation- and worldwideoperations.

OBO director General Charles E. Williams noted in fiscalyear 2005 that OBO spent more than $1.5 billion with asizable amount going to small businesses. Participants in the8(a) Business Development Program received $153 million;HUBZone small businesses received $92 million; and smallfirms owned by service-disabled veterans and by womeneach received $37 million.

Industry participants had ample time to visit and interactin the exhibit hall, which featured booths from all OBO andseveral other Department agencies and offices. The officialprogram and exhibit hall brought industry contractors face-to-face with government decisionmakers, acquisition officersand other high-level officials to discuss and review currentlyavailable contracts. Government officials, in turn, learnedabout the latest trends in private industry.

Following the official welcome and opening remarks byGen. Williams, participants were treated to presentationsthat centered on how all contractors, small and large, cancompete for government contracts. Walter Cate, divisiondirector of Facilities Design & Construction in the Office ofAcquisitions Management, spoke on the contracting process;Gregory Mayberry, operations director from the Office of

Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, discussed theDepartment’s record with small businesses; and KimberlyBaugher, industrial security specialist with the Office ofDiplomatic Security, detailed the security clearance processfor contractors doing business with the Department.

Gen. Williams also spelled out the scope of OBO’s world-wide operations, noting that his bureau served more than 35agencies with more than 17,000 properties in 265 cities scat-tered through 176 countries.

“Our portfolio is wide and diverse,” said Gen. Williams.“We touch every aspect of the globe, and we maintain andpreserve history along with the host countries’ traditions sothat our presence blends in beautifully and seamlessly.”

Part of the portfolio includes replacing 140 embassiesthroughout the world, a 13-year project funded at approxi-mately $1.3 billion a year. Gen. Williams unveiled to theaudience “The Williams 20,” or “New Ways to Think, NewWays to Build 2006 and Beyond”. That document is availableon the OBO web site at http://obo.state.gov/Williams-Think-Build%2020.pdf.

Gen. Williams also presented the 2005 Green BuildingAward to the design team representing FLOUR/JAJI. CharlesLynn and John Chatman accepted the award, which was pre-sented to recognize the team’s performance, teamwork anddedication in making the new embassy compound in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a success in sustainable design. �

The author is the editor of State Magazine.

BY ROB WILEY

OBO Industry DayDraws Record Crowd

Left: OBO Director General Charles E. Williams, left, presents the 2005 Green Building Award to Charles Lynn, center, and John Chatman. Right: Elke Muzikar of Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., left, visits with Sherrill Abramson of OBO’s Safety/Health and Environmental Management Division.

20 STATE MAGAZINE

Cities and Thrones and PowersStand in Time’s eye,Almost as long as flowers,Which daily die:But, as new buds put forthTo glad new men,Out of the spent and unconsidered EarthThe Cities rise again.—Rudyard Kipling

Written decades ago, these simple words took on newmeaning for those gathered in the New Orleans PassportAgency office on a balmy December day near the end of 2005.

Temporarily forced from their homes by the double fury ofHurricanes Katrina and Rita late last summer, the Agencystaff, reduced to about a third of its full strength, met toreconfirm to the world its commitment to providing contin-ued passport service to American citizens. It alsoreconfirmed its commitment to help heal the wounded cityof New Orleans.

They gathered to celebrate not just the reopening of one ofthe Department’s busiest and most productive offices,although that was the official reason. They gathered to cele-brate a Department family reunion and, on a grander scale,what Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services FrankMoss called one small but significant step in “the renais-sance” of New Orleans.

Keynote speaker Assistant Secretary for Consular AffairsMaura Harty centered the celebration in “today,” paid tributeto those who survived the horrors of “yesterday” and firmlyset the Agency’s eye on a rejuvenated “tomorrow.”

“We gather today to open ceremonially the doors of theNew Orleans Passport Agency and to write the next chapterin the history of this agency,” Ms. Harty said. “I believe veryfirmly and strongly that the recovery of this city will stand onthese kinds of efforts, and that authorities and private citi-zens at all levels in all fields will work together to restorehousing, employment and opportunity.”

The office actually reopened on a reduced schedule threemonths after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Normally staffed

NEW ORLEANS PASSPORT AGENCY GOES HOME BY ROB WILEY

Welcome Back Assistant Secretary Maura Harty, center, is surrounded by New Orleans passport specialists: from left, supervisor Rosemarie D’Antonio, Ryan New,Andy McGuire and Stacy Boisvert.

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21FEBRUARY 2006

with 165 employees, the office staff was up to 60 percent ofnormal by mid-January. The pre-Katrina staff processedbetween 7,000 and 10,000 passport applications a day andaccounted for 20 percent of passport production for passportservices. By mid-January, they were processing more than3,000 applications a day.

New Orleans is home to about 70 federal agencies and fieldoffices. By mid-December, about half those agencies andoffices had at least partially reopened, according to the NewOrleans Federal Executive Board.

“Our goal is to get back to full strength as soon as possibleand hopefully expand in the near future to meet the needs ofthe Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative,” said DarrellSmith, regional director of the New Orleans Passport Agency.“As people come back and find places to live or rebuild theirhomes, we will grow by leaps and bounds.”

Other passport agencies pitched in for the stricken NewOrleans agency in the aftermath of the disaster. Even beforethe floodwaters receded, Mr. Moss led a task force into thehigh-rise building on the outskirts of the French Quarter and

rescued 120,000 applications that were inprocess and more than 150,000 blank pass-ports. The Charleston office alone processedmore than 115,000 of those applications inless than three weeks.

Mr. Smith, meanwhile, wasted little time inorganizing the rescue effort for his office.Despite setbacks—levees failing, unprece-dented flooding, lack of hotel and otherservices throughout the city—he was talkingwith field operations within passport servicesthe day after Katrina struck. The first prioritywas to track down his staff; the second was todevelop a plan to reopen the office.

“We kept pushing and pushing until wefinally had a skeleton crew in here in earlyNovember,” he said. “We officially opened theoffice on November 28.”

While taking care of business tops the pri-ority list, taking care of the still displacedfamily members is a very close second.

“We know where everyone is, and we callthem once a week,” Mr. Smith said. “We keeptrack of where they are and what they need,and make sure they are up to date on policychanges and resources available to them. Weare going to take care of them until they cancome back to us.”

The employees who made it back were awelcome sight for Don Hutchinson, executiveassistant for Mayor Ray Nagin’s Office ofEconomic Development. He called the NewOrleans Passport Agency a key element in therevitalization of New Orleans.

“Welcome back. Welcome home,” he said.“This reopening is proof positive that NewOrleans is getting back on the map, that ourcity is again recognized as one of the great

international cities on the planet. The Office of EconomicDevelopment connects people and businesses to opportuni-ty; you guys help us do that by opening up internationaltravel for us.

“You could have gone anywhere in the country, but youchose to come back to New Orleans. We really appreciate that.”

That choice, said Assistant Secretary Harty, was easy.“In a very real sense, the Department of State never left this

city,” she said. “This agency started in this city on Aug. 6,1921, and since then it has become indispensable to theDepartment’s ability to deliver courteous, efficient passportservices to the American public. We want to see you comeroaring back to that rightful place you held among the pass-port agencies, and we will be with you every step of the way.

“You have been called upon in every way to demonstratecourage and heart and imagination. You will not and havenot been beaten.” �

The author is the editor of State Magazine.

Top: Celebrating the Passport Agency family reunion: from left, Vickie Kates, cash clerksupervisor; Fannie Gunter, contact representative; Trenton Kates, Vickie’s son and localhigh school student; Dieldra Square, contact representative; and Paulette Lewis, contactrepresentative. Bottom: Assistant Secretary Harty helps New Orleans Passport AgencyRegional Director Darrell Smith, left, and Deputy Assistant Secretary Frank Moss cut theceremonial cake.

22 STATE MAGAZINE

Henrietta Fore has a big job.Sworn in as Under Secretary of State

for Management on August 2, 2005,Ms. Fore leads six major bureaus andseveral offices responsible for thepeople, resources, facilities, technologyand security of the Department ofState. She serves as the Secretary’s prin-cipal adviser on management issues.

The bureaus and offices that reportto Under Secretary Fore are responsiblefor management improvement initia-

tives; security; the Department’s infor-mation technology infrastructure;support services for domestic andoverseas operations; consular affairs;and personnel matters, includingretirement programs, recruitment,career development, training andmedical services. She is the StateDepartment’s representative on thePresident’s Management Council.

Prior to her appointment, UnderSecretary Fore served as the 37th

Director of the United States Mint inthe Department of Treasury. From1989 to 1993, she served as a presiden-tial appointee, first as AssistantAdministrator for Private Enterprise inthe U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment and then as AssistantAdministrator for Asia.

Under Secretary Fore has also heldleadership positions in numerousinternational nonprofit organizationsand was a successful businesswoman

Q&A WITH UNDER SECRETARY FOR MANAGEMENT HENRIETTA FORE BY ROB WILEY

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in private industry. In 1987, the Stateof the World Forum recognized herw i th the Women Re de f in ingLeadership Award.

As the Department official responsi-ble for implementing the President’sManagement Agenda, Under SecretaryFore is deeply involved in guiding theDepartment through the five PMA ini-tiatives designed to make governmentmore customer oriented, efficient andeffective: human capital, competitive

sourcing, financial management, e-gov-ernment and budget and performanceintegration.

In early January, Under SecretaryFore gave State Magazine a wide-ranging interview concerning the PMAhuman capital initiative at theDepartment.

SM: Under current budgetary pres-sures, what is the Department’s biggesthuman capital challenge in fulfilling itsmission?

Under Secretary Fore: First, weneed to find the right people with theright skills and put them in the rightplace at the right time. We have thechallenge of overseas equity competi-tive pay. That is our first challenge forFS 01s, 02s and 03s. We want to be surethat we have a good basic pay systemfor us and for other Foreign Serviceagencies.

Our challenge for 2006 funding hasbeen to retain some growth in thenumber of positions that we have overand above attrition. It’s been a very tightbudget year, but it’s very important thatwe do retain those positions. If we can,then we have much more flexibility inhow and where we deploy people.

We also have some challenges oncareer development. We are working

hard on making sure that everyone canfollow a career track and developdepth in two languages and in tworegions. We keep working on makingsure there is time for training, whetherit’s at the Foreign Service Institute orat your desk.

We are looking hard at quality of lifeoverseas and at issues such as familyassignments, financial resources andjunior officer assignments. We want tobe sure that the entire package is a very

good one. We now have more than 600positions overseas that are unaccompa-nied, and it’s very important that wehave a package that works for thewhole family.

SM: Where does the Departmentstand in preparing to modernize its work-place rules and management practices?

Under Secretary Fore: We areenthusiastic about the concept of payfor performance. We feel very stronglythat the Department has been a leader,especially on the Foreign Service side.We are studying best practices for theCivil Service, and we are looking atother agencies and other systems thatare doing performance-based pay. Wewant to ensure that we have the bestsystems and harmonize them betweenForeign Service and Civil Service.

As much as possible, we want to lookafter our locally employed staff. They arevery important to our entire operation.

SM: You had successful careers inprivate industry and the nonprofit sectorsbefore joining government. How doesthat shape your perspective on moderniz-ing the federal workplace?

Under Secretary Fore: I thinkthere are very good systems in anumber of organizations, and if you do

best practices and benchmarking well,you will see systems that really doreward top performance and train forflexibility. The world today is fastchanging; you need real-time informa-tion and already developed skills. Whenwe send a diplomat out, we want him orher to have all the necessary skills toreact to the situation in front of themand do well.

We want to be sure that we are on thefront edge. We want to look after our

people while we put in place the bestpractices we can adapt from everysector. I believe strongly in taking stockof corporate models, other governmentagency models, nonprofit models andother countries’ models.

You learn in business that you don’talways have to invent the new system.You can use best practices and makethem work within your culture, withinyour mission and for your people.

SM: The Department’s work force hasmore different components—ForeignService, Civil Service, Locally EmployedStaff, contractors—than almost any othergovernment agency. Can you name somespecific steps the Department can take toensure that each segment gets its share ofthe best and brightest candidates?

Under Secretary Fore: We areafter the best and the brightest.Secretary Rice has committed to excel-lence and diversity in our work force.Let me mention a few things we aredoing on the recruitment side.

We have formed partnerships with anumber of institutions —from histori-cally black colleges and universities toenvironmental entities—that allow usto recruit from their pools of talent. Wehave also participated in conferences,we have advertised in media; we target

23FEBRUARY 2006

“It is not just what you know, it iswhat you do with what you knowthat is going to be important.”

audiences so we can get our message toparticular groups.

For instance, we know that we wouldlike to reach out to people who alreadyare fluent in a language, such as Arabic,Chinese or Russian. We have 17 diplo-mats who are in residence at variousuniversities around the country. Theyidentify good students; they counsel, theymentor, they respond to e-mails and soon. They encourage applicants for boththe Foreign Service and the Civil Servicepools of potential employees.

We also want to be sure that we aredirecting applicants to our web site,www.careers.state.gov. At that site,viewers can sign up for a free e-mailsubscription so we can update citizenswhen an area of interest pops up with avacancy announcement or of someother news. We have added a section tothe careers web site—AssignmentAbroad—that gives viewers an interest-ing look at a typical Foreign ServiceOfficer’s experience.

We are just as active on the CivilService side. For example, in 2005 weenrolled 51 new Fellows in thePresidential Management Fellowsprogram. Through the end of January,we had 150 employees in the CareerEntry Program, and 38 of them aregraduates of our intern program.

We have other fellowship programsfor students of all levels, including theThomas R. Pickering Foreign AffairsFellowship Program, the GraduateForeign Affairs Fellowship Program andthe Cooperative Education Program. Allof these programs are designed toencourage the best and the brightest toenter our system.

For our locally employed staff, theOverseas Employment Office in theWestern Hemisphere area developed anew manual that covers everything from

vacancy announcements to placingadvertising in local newspapers. All ofthis helps regulate our recruiting system.

SM: Like the work force, your partic-ular management portfolio is very broad,ranging from medical services to passportservices to overseas schools. How do youbalance the needs of such a wide varietyof activities?

Under Secretary Fore: A chiefexecutive officer in private industry bal-ances the needs of the organization andthe people within the organization, andthen allocates resources to where theyare needed. I have good practice andgood training for this. Here at theDepartment, our management familyfits together very nicely. There is much

synergy and dedication to doing thebest job. We can exchange ideas on bestpractices and help each other createcenters of excellence that can be used inthe entire M area.

We always keep in mind customerservice, efficiency and effectiveness; wealways look after our people, becausethe people get you through all the chal-lenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

We have an excellent senior teamhere, and we meet on a daily basis in themornings with a conference call. We

also have one-on-one meetings wherewe talk about the objectives of each areaand what they are trying to accomplishin the short and long terms.

Shortly after I arrived, we completeda two-day off-site summit with oursenior management team, and wecreated six priorities to focus on infiscal year 2006:

• The President’s ManagementAgenda—We want to achieve greenin every area.

• Rightsizing and Regionalization—We want to increase efficiencies inhow we accomplish our mission.

• Secure Borders, Open Doors—Secretary Rice and HomelandSecurity Secretary Chertoff made ajoint announcement on this initia-tive in mid-January.

24 STATE MAGAZINE

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Left: Under Secretary Fore, waving, and her special assistant Elizabeth Moore fly over Baghdad in a Blackhawk helicopter. Right photo: UnderSecretary Fore inspects the new consular annex site in Jerusalem.

“We are after the best and the brightest.”

• Career Development, Training andOperational Readiness—We wantto provide the right training at theright time for the entire work force.

• Quality of Life—This includeseverything from schools to pay toeligible family members’ employ-ment.

• Knowledge Management—Wewant to get real-time informationin the hands of our people; if peoplehave current information, they canact with the greatest amount ofknowledge we can arm them with.

By next September, we will see howwe did. We are doing well so far. We havemet or exceeded several goals, such asnumber of completions of FasTracDistance Learning courses. Our goal is5,500 completions in fiscal year 2006.

It’s vital that we know what peopleare doing. Each job is important. Wehave extremely bright and capablepeople, so we want to be sure that westructure the jobs and opportunities tomatch their capabilities.

SM: How do you interpret theconcept of “transformational diplomacy”as it relates to the different segments ofthe work force?

Under Secretary Fore: I was ahistory major, and I loved my diplo-matic history course. At that time, atraditional diplomat was one who wasan interlocutor with a host countrygovernment. A traditional diplomatreported on events, analyzed thingsand formed policy. This is a newworld. Secretary Rice and PresidentBush are action oriented and commit-ted to results.

The Secretary has asked us to adopt ahands-on approach. It is not just whatyou know; it is what you do with whatyou know that is going to be important.The Secretary has called for transfor-mation diplomacy as a way to use our

talents, energy and leadership to createa better world. It’s a remarkable chal-lenge, an inspirational challenge to helpcreate freedom and democracy, encour-age prosperity to fight terrorism andadvance American ideas and ideals.

We have been calling for ideas fromeveryone from every corner of theDepartment, and that affects us inManagement because our people havelots of ideas. We want to have a goodforum to identify best practices. Wewant to explore what’s available, whatour people can use worldwide and

what we in the U.S. can do to supporttheir efforts.

FSI put together a class on transfor-mational diplomacy, and it has beenvery successful. I’m sure we will have acontinuing group of courses andmodules that will be added to regionalcourses. We also want to develop acomputer-based course that will cometo desktops so everyone—locallyemployed staff, Civil Service, ForeignService—will be able to take course-work on transformational diplomacy.

SM: FSI gets high marks amongfederal educational institutions. Can youdiscuss plans to enhance the effectivenessof its programs?

Under Secretary Fore: We dothink of FSI as being the best in theworld, but you have to work hard tostay there. FSI has the ability to be oneof four centers for e-government. Thatis a very strong accreditation and accla-mation for their work. But it also meansthat we now need to encourage our col-leagues in other agencies to use FSI’se-learning courses and systems.

This is a good time for people to talkabout FSI. We now train for more than70 languages at FSI. We are focusing ondeeper expertise in each language; ourgoal is to improve language proficiencyabove the 3 level so our people can

speak confidently on television in manylanguages as they represent the UnitedStates throughout the world.

We are also looking at deeperimmersion in languages so that ourpeople can speak a language in thecountry before actually beginning theirtour, either at the junior officer, midlevel or senior officer.

FasTrac has available 3,000 commer-cial courses. Learning has literally cometo everyone’s desktop. We want tochange FSI’s center of gravity from thecampus to the desktop and digital video

conferencing. More posts are installingsecure digital video conferencing, soprofessors can teach from FSI to stu-dents at post. Again, moving the centerof gravity out to our people fits withtransformational diplomacy.

Leadership and management courseswill continue to be vitally important.When our people are at FSI for lan-guage training, for example, weencourage them to add on managementand leadership courses so they get thattraining before they go to post. We’llalso try more e-learning in leadershipand management.

We encourage innovation and imagi-nation, so I’m interested in any ideasthat people have. We also want to be surethat we are pairing our book learningwith our assignments. Junior officerstaking a leadership and managementclass may get the opportunity to actuallylead a group, lead a task force or lead aninitiative. I would be very interested inways that posts are pairing book learn-ing with actual experience. We want todo that on the Civil Service side also.

FSI is our key to learning in theDepartment. I think all our employeeswill see a very exciting year with thenumber of courses we offer. �

The author is the editor of StateMagazine.

25FEBRUARY 2006

“We always look after our people, becausethe people get you through all the challengesand opportunities that lie ahead.”

U.S. EMBASSIES HELP EDUCATETHE WORLD ABOUT THEREDESIGNED $10 NOTE

BY ELLEN GANO

TheNew Colorof Money

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Late last year, U.S. embassies across the world joined theU.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing and theFederal Reserve to unveil a new $10 note and help inform theglobal public about its new security and design features.

From Latin America, where the $10 note is widely used, toRussia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, embassies have ledand participated in a number of public education activitiesprior to the introduction of the new note into circulation,planned for March 2.

For example, embassy and consulate officials in numerouscities in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Quito,Guayaquil, San Salvador,Panama City, Mexico City, Lima,Bogotá, Montevideo, SantoDomingo and Kingston, partici-pated in press conferences tounveil the new design in lateSeptember. Attendees includedtop media outlets and key stake-holders for each country, such asbanking, tourism and lawenforcement representatives.

Remarks from embassy offi-cials about the new $10 notefocused on how it is safer,smarter and more secure. InMexico City, U.S. AmbassadorAntonio O. Garza Jr. said, “Tostay ahead of counterfeiters asadvances in technology makedigital counterfeiting easier andcheaper, the U.S. governmentexpects to redesign its currencyevery 7 to 10 years.” In Lima,U.S. Ambassador J. CurtisStruble noted that the U.S.Embassy network “will play an important role in educatingstakeholders around the world.”

The press conferences helped generate immediate aware-ness about the new note. Within the first two days followingthe unveiling of the design, hundreds of print and broad-cast articles were tallied, more than 400,000 web site hitsgenerated and more than 800 orders for educational mate-rials placed.

The public education effort is not new to embassy offi-cials. Over the past two years, embassies have assisted theBEP, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Secret Service in itsglobal public education program called “The New Color ofMoney,” which began in 2003 with the introduction of thenew $20 note. The redesigned $50 note followed in 2004.The $100—the most widely used denomination outside theUnited States—will be the next note to be redesigned afterthe $10 note.

Embassy efforts have been central to ensuring that inter-national audiences recognize and accept new U.S. currency.With more than $650 billion in U.S. currency circulatingaround the world, embassy activities to educate the public in

specific countries, particularly in Latin America’s dollarizedeconomies, focus on reaching key audiences, such as foreigngovernments, central banks, currency handlers, exchangeagencies, financial institutions and, most important, lawenforcement agencies.

For example, the embassies in Ecuador, El Salvador,Colombia, Mexico and Panama recently helped organizetraining seminars for cash handlers and law enforcementagencies with a Federal Reserve representative, whoexplained the new $10 note’s design and security features. Asimilar seminar was organized in Toronto. These seminars

help ensure that local officials will recognize the newnote once it enters circulation and can work to preventcounterfeiting.

The embassy team in Russia helped develop an electronicnewsletter, Banknote, that is distributed to all key stakehold-ers in the country. In the Philippines, the embassy organizeda speaker for the annual convention of the Philippines TravelAgents Association to alert the tourism industry of U.S. cur-rency changes.

Additionally, all over the globe, embassy staff have orderedand distributed free public education materials in more than24 languages.

More information about the public education programcan be found online at www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney.On this web site, Department personnel can request access tothe online Public Education Resource Kit, which providesdetailed information about how to prepare for the introduc-tion of the new $10 note. �

The author is a public affairs specialist with the Bureau ofEngraving and Printing.

U.S. Ambassador J. Curtis Struble unveils the design of the new $10 note in Lima, Peru.

28 STATE MAGAZINE

The 19th CenturyThe first full-time African-American employee appears in

Department records in 1817. Joseph Warren was an assistantmessenger, while his wife Louisa worked for the Departmentas a laundress. The Warrens’ experience is representative ofthe roughly 20 African-Americans employed by theDepartment between 1820 and 1867 as laborers, custodians,or messengers.

Before the Civil War, only one African-American brokethis discriminatory pattern. In 1845, during the MexicanWar, William Leidesdorff was sent as Vice Consul to YerbaBuena, modern-day San Francisco, where he served until U.S.troops took control of the city in 1846.

It would be more than 20 years before another African-American was sent on a diplomatic mission. In 1869,President Grant sent Yale graduate Ebenezer Bassett to Haitias Minister Resident and Consul General, making him thefirst African-American chief of mission. Two years later,President Grant appointed another African-American chiefof mission, sending James Milton Turner to Liberia. In 1889came perhaps the most famous minority appointment of theera, President Harrison’s choice of abolitionist FrederickDouglass as Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti,and Chargé d’Affaires to the Dominican Republic.

A handful of African-Americans also served in theConsular Service. In 1897, George Jackson passed theConsular Service exam and was appointed Consul inCognac, France, making him the first African-Americancareer consular officer and also the first African-American toserve at a European post. In 1898, President McKinley sentRichard Greener, the first African-American Harvard gradu-ate, to be Consul in Vladivostok, where he served until 1905.

The Early 20th CenturyIn 1906, three African-Americans were made career

consuls: James Carter, William Yerby and James WeldonJohnson. Johnson, a poet, songwriter, and later field secretaryof the National Association for the Advancement of ColoredPeople (NAACP), served for seven years in Venezuela,Senegal and Nicaragua. Yerby served for 26 years in SierraLeone, Senegal, France and Portugal. Carter served for 36years at posts in Madagascar and France.

However, Carter, Yerby, and Johnson were the exception,not the rule. While African-Americans were not excludedfrom the Diplomatic and Consular Services, they neverserved in great numbers. In 1908, for example, there wereonly 11 African-Americans in the Diplomatic and ConsularServices. Those who did serve tended to be assigned to anarrow range of either racially distinct or low-profile posts inplaces such as Liberia, Haiti, French- and British-controlledAfrica, Latin America, France, and Portugal.

In 1924, the Rogers Act combined the Consular andDiplomatic Services into a single professional corps, withentry through examination and promotion based on merit.Under the act, Yerby, Carter, and William Hunt, who hadbegun service as a consular clerk in Madagascar in 1899,became the first three African-American Foreign Service offi-cers. They were soon joined by Clifton Wharton, who hadbegun working at the Department in 1924 as a law clerk—theonly African-American employed in a professional positionin the Department at that time. Wharton was 1 of 144 peoplewho took the very first Foreign Service exam and 1 of only 20who passed it.

However, despite the legal provisions of the Rogers Act,discrimination remained the order of the day. During

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEBY MARC J. SUSSER AND KATHLEEN B. RASMUSSEN

TheAfrican-American

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Wharton’s time as a law clerk,his co-workers general lyignored him. Only one col-league ever ate lunch with him.Even had others wished to do so,it would have been difficult: theDepartment’s cafeteria was seg-regated (and would remain sountil 1945), as was the rest ofthe nation’s capital. Whartonfared no better after he passedthe Foreign Service exam. Hewas dispatched to Liberiawithout the training that hisfellow FSOs received. Initially,he and his wife were slated totravel via cargo ship; theysecured more suitable travelarrangements only when hethreatened not to take the job.Wharton spent the next 25 yearsat posts traditionally reservedfor African-Americans. In 1946,after receiving yet another

undesirable assignment, he told a personnel officer:“You’re not only discriminating against us in theService, but you’re exporting discrimination abroad.”

Even more troubling, Wharton would be the lastAfrican-American to enter the Foreign Service for thenext 20 years. From the mid-1920s until the mid-1940s, new African-American Departmentalemployees held either clerical or messenger jobs, orserved in noncareer positions. By the end of 1942Wharton was the sole African-American ForeignService officer.

Post–World War II After World War II, mounting pressure from the

African-American community, the growth of thecivil rights movement, and the increasing realizationthat America’s claim to be the land of equal opportu-nity was being undermined abroad by itsdiscriminatory practices at home, prompted theDepartment to begin to act. After 1945, African-Americans were again admitted to the ForeignService; nevertheless, in 1948 there were still only fiveAfrican-American FSOs.

Ralph Bunche was the most prominent African-American diplomat of the time. He earned highpraise for his wartime work in the Office of StrategicServices and the Department of State. In 1945, he wasAssociate Chief of the Division of Dependent AreaAffairs and an adviser to the U.S. delegation to theSan Francisco conference that led to the creation of

29FEBRUARY 2006

Above: President Truman congratulates Dr. Ralph Bunche after presenting him the Outstanding Citizenship Award in 1949. Below: Clifton Wharton,with Secretary Dean Rusk, at his swearing in as Ambassador to Romania.

30 STATE MAGAZINE

the United Nations. In 1946, Dr. Bunche accepted a positionat the United Nations, where his work earned him the 1950Nobel Peace Prize, making him the first African-Americanrecipient of that honor. In 1949, Bunche declined an offer toreturn to the Department as Assistant Secretary for NearEastern, South Asian, and African Affairs, telling PresidentTruman that not only did he wish to continue his work at theUN, but that he did not want to live in segregatedWashington, D.C.

Also in 1949, Edward Dudley, a lawyer and NAACP LegalDefense Fund member, became the first African-Americanambassador when his mission in Liberia was elevated toembassy status. That same year, Clifton Wharton, who hadspent his career in posts traditionally filled by African-Americans, broke this tradition when he was made ConsulGeneral and First Secretary in a European capital, at the U.S.mission in Lisbon. He soon became Supervisory ConsulGeneral for all of Portugal.

Other African-Americans also received non-traditionalpostings. Giles Hubert became a Foreign Service officer in1947 and was initially assigned to Port-au-Prince, but latermoved on to Kabul, New Delhi, and Bombay. In 1948,Charles Hanson, Jr., was told that he could not serve at aEuropean post because Europeans would not accept him. Hewas sent to Monrovia. However, in 1950 he was posted toZurich—where he endured substandard housing and a coolreception from some FSOs. In 1953 he was sent to Calcutta.William George, who became a Foreign Service officer in

1945, after 16 years as a clerk and non-career consular officer,served in Copenhagen and Montreal before retiring in 1956.

In 1958, President Eisenhower chose Clifton Wharton tobe Minister to Romania. This choice ended the practice oflimiting the appointment of African-Americans as chiefs ofmission only to posts in Liberia, Haiti, and the DominicanRepublic. Wharton not only became the first African-American chief of mission in Europe, but also the firstAfrican-American FSO to head a mission. In 1959, Whartonwas promoted to the rank of career minister.

Nevertheless, despite the advances in the careers of indi-vidual diplomats since 1945, by the end of the 1950s, fewerthan two dozen African-Americans were serving at theofficer level in the Foreign Service.

This pattern continued into the 1960s. In 1961, PresidentKennedy appointed Wharton as Ambassador to Norway.That same year, journalist Carl Rowan was appointed DeputyAssistant Secretary for Public Affairs, the highestDepartmental post held by an African-American to that date.President Johnson appointed six African-Americans to atotal of eight ambassadorial posts, including sending PatriciaHarris as Ambassador to Luxembourg, the first African-American female ambassador. That same year Hugh Smythewas named as Ambassador to Syria; 2 years later he was sentas Ambassador to Malta. Nonetheless, despite such individ-ual achievements, under-representation remained a seriousproblem. In 1968, there were still fewer than two dozenAfrican-Americans in the Foreign Service.

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Assignments and promotions intoday’s Department are based onmerit. All Americans are welcometo join the Civil Service andForeign Service. The Department’sleadership is committed to diversi-

ty and excellence, but that was not always the case.Gone are the days when Ralph Bunche “chafed at how

he was lionized as a safe token black while talented blackprofessionals were held back.” The Foreign Service exam isno longer administered by Alger Hiss, who was ordered tofail all takers with the caveat that he take test takers namesand backgrounds to senior officers for selection. African-Americans were routinely rejected.

Fifty years ago, America had the world’s best ForeignService and Ronald Palmer wanted to join it. Palmer laterserved as ambassador to Togo, Malaysia and Mauritius,but a protective Howard University professor thought hisquest quixotic because the State Department had fewopenings for blacks and limited their assignments to theso-called “Negro Circuit” of small third-world posts.

Charles Hanson, a brilliant linguist, was shipped off toLiberia without the benefit of being able to bid on other

posts. Ollie Ellison, who retired after serving as a deputychief of mission, was told during his initial backgroundinvestigation that the Department did not approve ofmixed marriages; he was a Protestant marrying a Catholic.Ulrich Haynes, an Amherst and Yale graduate who servedat the National Security Council and as ambassador toAlgiers during the Iran Hostage Crisis, recalls meetingspouses at this welcome party who were angry at whatState “had sent them,” a black ambassador.

Shirley Barnes, later ambassador to Madagascar, wasdiscouraged from serving in NEA by superiors who toldher that the locally employed staff would never work for ablack woman. They were wrong. And John Withers Sr.,who became AID Mission Director in India and Ethiopia,was told to bring a bag lunch on his first day at workbecause he would not be permitted to join his colleagueswho were lunching at a drug store across from State.

Nevertheless, both Withers’ and Ellison’s sons havejoined the Foreign Service and excelled. Why? It is achance to serve their country in an America that is farbetter than the one their fathers were born into.

The author is the Department’s Executive Secretary.

BREAKING THE ‘NEGRO CIRCUIT’BY AMBASSADOR HARRY K. THOMAS JR.

The Late 20th CenturyDuring the 1970s, African-Americans began to receive

more—and more diverse—high level assignments, bothabroad and at home. Presidents Nixon and Ford sent 13African-Americans to 16 different ambassadorial posts,including Jerome Holland to Sweden and Beverly Carter toTanzania. Terence Todman received three postings duringthese two administrations. Todman entered the Civil Servicein 1952 and transferred to Foreign Service Officer status in1957. An outstanding linguist, Todman served in New Delhi,Beirut, Tunis, and Lomé.

In 1969, President Nixon named Todman as Ambassadorto Chad. In 1972, he appointed him as Ambassador toGuinea. In 1974, President Ford sent Todman as Ambassadorto Costa Rica. Todman had insisted that he receive a non-African post, based not only on his linguistic abilities, but, ashe later said, on “the importance of world-wide assignmentsbeing made available for all officers.” In 1977, Todmanbecame Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, thefirst African-American to lead a geographic bureau.

P r e s i d e n t C a r t e r a n dSecretary of State Vance came tooffice committed to increasingthe diversity of the ForeignService. In 1977, Carter appoint-ed 9 African-Americans asambassadors, and a total of 15over his 4-year term. He sentAndrew Young and DonaldMcHenry to the United Nations,Ulrich Haynes to Algeria, DavidBolen to East Germany, MauriceBean to Burma, and Todman toSpain. Mabel Murphy Smythewas made Ambassador toCameroon and later DeputyAssistant Secretary for AfricanAffairs. In 1977, Barbara Watsonreturned as Administrator of theBureau of Security andConsular Affairs, having previ-ously held the position from1968 to 1974. Later in 1977, shewas promoted to AssistantSecretary for Consular Affairs,a n d i n 1 9 8 0 b e c a m eAmbassador to Malaysia.

Nevertheless, a basic problemremained. Despite the advancesof the 1970s, the under-repre-sentation of African-Americansin the Foreign Service as a wholepersisted. In January 1981,African- Americans constitutedonly 3.5 percent of all FSOs.

President Reagan appointedAfrican-Americans to 18

ambassadorial posts, including sending Todman toDenmark. In 1986, Edward Perkins, previously Director ofthe Office of West African Affairs and then Ambassador toLiberia, was sent as Ambassador to South Africa. In 1989,during President George H. W. Bush’s administration,Perkins became Director General of the Foreign Service, laterserving as Ambassador to the UN, and then Australia. Thatsame year, Todman was sent to Argentina. He was also madea Career Ambassador.

In 1993, President Clinton named George Moose, who hadpreviously served as Ambassador to Benin and to Senegal,Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, while Conrad Harperbecame the Department’s first African-American LegalAdviser. In 1995, Ruth Davis, who had served as Ambassadorto Benin since 1992, was named Principal Deputy AssistantSecretary for Consular Affairs. Two years later, she becamethe first African-American Director of the Foreign ServiceInstitute, and in 2001, the first African-American womanDirector General. Also in the 1990s, Aurelia Brazeal becomethe first African-American woman to rise from the entry

31FEBRUARY 2006

Patricia Harris at her swearing-in ceremony to be Ambassador to Luxembourg.

level to the most senior rank of the Foreign Service, servingas Ambassador to Micronesia and to Kenya, and DeputyAssistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific. Brazeal mostrecently served as Ambassador to Ethiopia.

However, by the end of the 20th century, the overall repre-sentation of African-Americans in the Foreign Serviceremained low. During the 1990s, only 71 African-Americansjoined the Foreign Service, compared to 121 Hispanic-Americans and 83 Asian-Americans. In 1983, 6.5 percent ofall FSOs were African-American; by the end of 2000, thatnumber was 5.6 percent.

In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Colin Powellas the first African-American Secretary of State. In 2002,Ruth Davis and George Moose were made CareerAmbassadors. In 2005, Condoleeza Rice became the firstwoman African-American Secretary of State. That same year,Harry Thomas Jr., then Ambassador to Bangladesh, becamethe Department’s first African-American Executive Secretaryand Johnny Young became a Career Ambassador. In 2005,African-Americans constituted approximately 31 percent ofCivil Service employees and 6 percent of Foreign Serviceemployees; however, 7.4 percent of all new Foreign Servicehires are African-American.

Many of the achievements recounted in this article are ofthe “firsts” variety. Clifton Wharton Jr., son of AmbassadorClifton Wharton and himself the first African-AmericanDeputy Secretary of State, once said of the meaning ofbeing a “first”: “There may be significance in being thefirst, but there’s more significance in being the second,third, fourth, fifth.” �

Dr. Susser is The Historian of the Department andDr. Rasmussen works in the Office of the Historian.

32 STATE MAGAZINE

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Above: Carl Rowan at his desk, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for PublicAffairs. Right: Secretary Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary ColinPowell.

33FEBRUARY 2006

As part of the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw’s Black HistoryMonth cultural outreach program, Cultural Affairs OfficerPatrick Lahey invited me to Poland to lecture about “TheHighwaymen,” African-American landscape painters aboutwhom I’ve recently published a book.

I had a lot of fuzzy, preconceived notions about EasternEurope. I was somehow expecting something out of thegulags, with bears wandering the streets and swarthy,unshaven men in long overcoats offering to sell me whateverI wanted. So modern, cosmopolitan downtown Warsaw wasa real comeuppance. The meetingsand venues Mr. Lahey and his staffarranged for me with universityeducators, students, museum cura-tors and the general public were ascivilized as the most cosmopolitanvenues anywhere.

The story of the Highwaymen isone that tells itself. With the oddsstacked squarely against them,these disenfranchised youngAfrican-Americans nonethelessrealized the American dream.In the process, they left a visuallegacy of modern Florida as theplace to realize one’s hopes andaspirations. It is a story of tran-scendence that typifies the best ofAmerican values, and Polish audi-ences were quick to grasp thesocial/cultural milieu and considerissues of the artwork.

Among my most enthusiasticfans was the director of Ethnic Studies at Warsaw University,Professor Bonena Chylinska, who has spent time in the U.S.researching black culture. She and her standing-room-onlyclasses of students were attentive and inquisitive, remainingwell into their lunch hour to ask me questions.

The audience and staff at Warsaw’s Ethnographic Museumwere no less receptive. First, the museum curator gave me atour of his own collections, showing me everything fromfarm tools to folk art. Then, in my presentation in themuseum auditorium, the audience once again demonstratedan appreciation for the triumph of human spirit, despiteseemingly insurmountable obstacles.

I later visited the old industrial side of Warsaw known asPraga, which is becoming Warsaw’s Soho. Space is affordable,but the area is rapidly gentrifying. Buildings, pockmarked bybullet holes and the occasional bricked-in starburst patternof an exploding artillery shell, contrast profoundly with theinside spaces that might as well be in Manhattan.

At the private Atelier Foksal, I shared my own photogra-phy, mostly images of America. Again, I was impressed by thesophistication of the students, teachers and guests. Theirquestions and comments exposed a depth of understandingthat I would be thrilled to be able to bang into the heads oftoo many of my American students. Although I was warnedthat Poles are not demonstrative, especially with their emo-tions, I was taken aback by their warmth and openness.

In the fairy-tale environment of Krakow, I had the oppor-tunity to talk to guests at the Massolit Bookshop, an

English-language used bookstore and café that attractsyoung intellectuals and others interested in everythingAmerican. Their perspectives made them seem like 60’scollege students from Berkeley, even though most of themmissed that era by a good 20 years.

I worked hard on my brief visit and was rewarded by beinginvited back to Poland this past summer. I started out as aguest at Ambassador Victor Ashe’s 4th of July party, then Mr.Lahey whisked me off to some dozen towns and villages faroff the beaten path. Along the bumpy roads, we saw crum-bling palaces as well as cows and goats wandering aboutunattended. As I think of the richness of the experience, andthe embassy’s challenge of presenting America to thesefaraway persons and places, I can see that this is clearly thesubject of another story. �

The author is a photographer, writer and lecturer livingin Florida.

Cultural Outreach Tells Story ofAfrican-American Artists BY GARY MONROE

Gary Monroe lectures to an audience in the embassy’s multipurpose room.

34 STATE MAGAZINE

Thanks to a public diplomacy grantfrom the U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone,some corporate support and donationsfrom schoolchildren in Rhode Islandand South Carolina, Thomalind MartinPolite completed an evocative journeyin both distance and time.

A speech therapist from Charleston,S.C., and a seventh-generation descen-dent of a slave named Priscilla, Ms.Polite symbolically returned her ances-tor’s spirit last year to this Africannation, where her family traces itsorigin. Records show that Priscilla, just10 years old, was on April 9, 1756,placed on the slave ship Hare, whichwas registered in Newport, RhodeIsland, and taken to a new world andher new home, a South Carolina riceplantation where she was awarded anew name and a lifetime of servitude.

The young Priscilla’s last view of hertrue home was the notorious BunceIsland, where slaves were held beforebeing transported throughout theBritish Empire during the 17th and18th centuries. The English Parliamentabolished slave trading throughout theEmpire in 1807 and in 1833 abolishedslavery itself.

Ms. Polite, her husband, Antawn, aswell as a group of U.S. journalists, aca-demics and artists were invited toSierra Leone by the ministry oftourism and culture.

“There’s every reason to believe thatyour ancestor, Priscilla, came from ourcountry, and that Sierra Leone is yourancestral home,” the invitation stated.

The weeklong visit generated lots offanfare, starting with her arrival in thenation’s capital, Freetown.

Sierra Leone’s president and vice-president as well as Freetown’s mayoroffered tributes. Cultural groups wel-comed her with traditional songs anddance and a local chief dubbed her“n’mahkoyah” or “great mother.” Thecommunity called her a “long-lostsister.” A local dramatist, Raymond DeSouza George, and his students fromFourah Bay College performed an orig-inal play depicting Priscilla’s life.

Priscilla’s legacy came alive the dayMs. Polite visited the Bunce Islandyard where Africans were purchased byBritish and American slave traders.Sitting in the area where the slaveswere held and standing on the jettywhere thousands touched African soilfor the last time, she tried to imaginethe trauma a young girl might haveexperienced.

Ambassador Thomas Hull, center, joinsThomalind Polite and her husband Antawn inthe Bunce Island slave quarters for women.

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EMBASSY HELPS FAMILY BRING PRISCILLA HOME BY RODMIRE TAYLOR-SMITH

Lost Sister Found

35FEBRUARY 2006

“Words cannot describe how I felt towalk into that area where so manywomen and children were held—notknowing why they were there or wherethey were going or if they would eversee their families or land again,” Ms.Polite says. “However, seeing BunceIsland has made me proud to know thatPriscilla, just 10 years old, was strongenough to survive the horrible trip toSouth Carolina and then endure 55years of slavery before she died. She wasa survivor.”

Recalling the rice plantation destina-tion of her ancestor, Ms. Polite visitedrice farms in Sierra Leone’s upcountrythat reminded her of the Gullah com-munity near her home. TheAfrican-American Gullah communitiesin coastal South Carolina and Georgiatrace their rice-growing skills to theslaves from Sierra Leone and neighbor-ing areas.

Joseph Opala, an expert on SierraLeone’s slave trade with America andthe Gullah connection and a professorat James Madison University, lecturedat the embassy on how Priscilla’sdescendants were discovered and con-tacted. He played a key role in

researching documents at the New YorkHistorical Society that linked Priscillato the Hare. Ron Daise, a Gullah per-former from St. Helena Island, S.C., anda local choral group, the FreetongPlayers, performed songs specificallywritten about Priscilla.

Ms. Polite presented the embassywith Priscilla’s portrait, as imagined byan African-American South Carolina

artist, to symbolize the ties betweenSierra Leone and the United States.

Because Bunce Island is such animportant landmark for African-Americans, the embassy approveda grant from the Ambassador’sFund for Cultural Preservation for

Syracuse University anthropologistChristopher DeCorse to conduct ahistorical survey of the island.

“The preservation of Bunce Island isvery important because it honors thosewho died and those who endured thehorrors of the slave trade,” says ThomasHull, the U.S. ambassador.

For more information, v isitwww.yale.edu/glc/priscilla/index.htm,

www.projo.com/sharedcontent/east/priscilla and www.charlestonmag.com/pop_archives.html (Long Journey Homeby Suzannah Smith-Miles). �

The author is a media assistant at theU.S. Embassy in Freetown.

The U.S. Embassy in Freetown wasdeeply involved in Priscilla’s home-coming. In the late 1970s, thenAmbassador Michael Samuels toldJoe Opala, then a Peace Corps volun-teer in Sierra Leone, that he shouldget involved with Bunce Island, andMr. Opala has been involved with theisland ever since.

Joe had arranged two previoushomecomings of African-Americanswith roots in Sierra Leone, but neitherwas as well documented as thePriscilla homecoming. The AmericanEmbassy supported both visits at thetime.

The embassy became involved inPrisci l la’s homecoming par tlythrough my own interest in the BunceIsland connection to the U.S. I firstvisited the island in 1969 when I was aPeace Corps volunteer, and the

impact of visualizing the horrors ofthe slave trade there had a lastingimpact. Former Secretary ColinPowell also describes in his autobiog-raphy the impact Bunce Island had onhim during his first visit more than adecade ago.

After coming to Sierra Leone asAmbassador, I met with the BunceIsland Preservation Committee, agroup of Americans and SierraLeoneans in the U.S., including JoeOpala. That group brought thePriscilla homecoming event to myattention, and I knew the embassyhad to be a part of the homecoming.

Today, we are proud to havePriscilla’s portrait in the embassy’sInformation Resource Center.

The author is the U.S. Ambassadorto Sierra Leoné.

FINDING ROOTS BY AMBASSADOR THOMAS N. HULL

Thomalind Polite presented this African-American artist’s perception of Priscilla inbondage to the U.S. Embassy in Freetownas a symbol of the ties between SierraLeone and the U.S.

“ “Seeing Bunce Island has made me proud

to know that Priscilla, just 10 years old, was

strong enough to survive the horrible trip to

South Carolina and then endure 55 years of

slavery before she died. She was a survivor.

36 STATE MAGAZINE

First Lady Laura Bush has logged quite a few miles since herhusband was sworn in to a second term last year.

In 2005, Mrs. Bush visited 27 countries on five continents.President Bush views the First Lady as a “good ambassador forour country” and an effective spokesperson for some of hiskey foreign policy initiatives. Her travels have highlighted thechallenges faced by citizens of underdeveloped countries andthe crucial role the United States plays in helping to improveconditions on the ground.

As a teacher and librarian, Mrs. Bush has been particularlyvocal about the need to raise literacy rates and to share withyoung people the gift of reading. In her capacity as HonoraryAmbassador for the United Nations Decade of Literacy, andin her many visits to schools and institutions of learningthroughout the world, she has emphasized the power of edu-cation to transform a society.

SUPPORTING MUSLIM WOMENFor Mrs. Bush, the liberation of Afghanistan presented

unprecedented opportunities for promoting women’sempowerment in the Muslim world. In November 2001, shebecame the first First Lady to deliver the President’s weekly

radio address and called attention to the Taliban’s oppressionof women.

Since then, through the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council andAfghan teacher training programs, she has worked to mobi-lize support for expanding women’s opportunities inAfghanistan. In March 2005, Mrs. Bush realized a long-helddream by visiting Afghanistan, meeting with President Karzai,visiting with the first class of graduates at the women’sTeacher Training Institute on the campus of Kabul Universityand seeing how women have been given new opportunities toparticipate in society since the fall of the Taliban.

Laura Bush shares her husband’s strong belief in America’sresponsibility to help others aspire to freedom and democra-cy. She sees her message of empowerment through educationas being crucial to democratic development.

One of the continuing themes of her visits abroad is thatearly reading is a key component of building an informed andengaged citizenry. As she noted in her May address to theWorld Economic Forum in Jordan, “[E]ducation helpsfreedom thrive. Citizens who are educated can choose forthemselves, make up their own minds and assume theirresponsibilities as citizens.”

Mrs. Bush spoke, for example, of a new program sponsoredby the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative

THE PRESIDENT’S “FIRST AMBASSADOR” SUPPORTS EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT

SPECIAL TO STATE MAGAZINE

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(State Magazine, October 2005) called “My Arabic Library,”which aims to put two million translated books in librariesthroughout the Arab world. And she highlighted the vital linkbetween education and economic opportunity and politicalparticipation for women in Middle Eastern countries.

FIGHTING AIDS IN AFRICAIn a weeklong trip in July 2005, Mrs. Bush traveled to Africa

and visited Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, where shewitnessed both the challenges and the hope that mark thecontinent. In Cape Town, she met with people who are bene-fiting from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief tosuccessfully prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS frompregnant women to their children.

The women at the Mothers-to-Mothers-to-be clinic toldMrs. Bush how hopeful they were that one day a generation ofSouth Africans would be born HIV-free. With the help of theState Department’s International Visitor’s Program, Mrs.Bush looks forward to welcoming several of the mothers toWashington in spring 2006.

Throughout Africa, the United States is working with localgroups and nongovernmental organizations to prevent thespread of HIV. One such group is Pastoral Activities andServices for People with Aids (PASADA), a Catholic charity inDar es Salaam that provides anti-retroviral treatment to thou-sands of AIDS patients free of charge. Today, PASADA—withU.S. government support—provides anti-retroviral therapy

and other services to 13,000 people affected by AIDS, includ-ing more than 3,000 AIDS orphans.

Mrs. Bush also met with students whose schools receivefunds through the Africa Education Initiative. President Bushproposed new funding for AEI that would make 300,000scholarships available for African girls through theAmbassador’s Girls Scholarship Program. Scholarships aretypically funded through the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment, which coordinates program activities on behalfof U.S. Embassies.

In Kigali, Rwanda, Mrs. Bush visited the Forum for AfricanWomen Educationalists’ school, where 29 girls receive U.S.-sponsored scholarships. The girls who attend FAWE weresmall children when the Rwandan genocide devastated theircountry. Many lost one or both parents.

These horrific events left deep impressions. During hervisit, Mrs. Bush met with the senior class and took questionsfrom students. The very first question asked was how theUnited States healed after its Civil War. Ten years removedfrom the genocide, Rwanda’s children are trying to heal, andthey are looking to the United States for guidance.

Discussing her trip to Africa, Mrs. Bush said, “It’s life-changing for me to see the real scope of what the problemsare. But not only that, to be inspired by people who aredealing with these problems, who live here… I was inspiredby the individual stories of the individuals who are makingsuch a huge difference.” �

Opposite page: Mrs. Bush and Zanzibar First Lady Shadya Karume (left) enjoy quality time with students at the Al Rahma Madrasa Preschool inZanzibar, Tanzania. Mrs. Bush also visited the USAID-supported Kiembe Samaki Teacher Training Center and helped inaugurate a new library built aspart of USAID’s program to improve the quality of learning in Zanzibar. Above: Mrs. Bush, accompanied by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah(seated with the First Lady), joins in a discussion in the Swaifiyeh Secondary School for Girls in Amman, Jordan.

38 STATE MAGAZINE

“It’s not just a web site!” That’s a message regularly rein-forced by leaders of the innovative Virtual Presence Postprograms at missions worldwide. A VPP is not simply anInternet presence, it’s an overall engagement strategy thatsupports transformational diplomacy via a “real” foreignservice post, albeit of a special type.

In the November 2005 issue of State Magazine, consularofficer Manu Bhalla described in the article “Virtual Reality”his experience as the virtual principal officer of the U.S.Embassy in Manila’s VPP program.

As the coordinator for Mission Brazil’s active and growingVPP program, I would like to discuss a dimension to VPPcoordination that backs up the work of the virtual principal

officer—the virtual country team. Front office authority andmission-wide input and commitment are needed for a VPPto really succeed. This is where the virtual country teamcomes in.

The virtual country team concept was promoted by theU.S. Embassy in Brasília’s Deputy Chief of Mission, PhillipChicola, in 2004, when the mission launched its first threevirtual posts in Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre.The launch was very successful, but our coordination ofpost-launch engagement was, in retrospect, somewhat inef-fective, and much of the initial momentum behind the

program was lost. Faced with this challenge, the DCM con-ceived of the virtual country team as a means to facilitateintra-mission dialogue and coordination and to provideentry-level officers with leadership opportunities.

Mission Brazil’s virtual country team is comprised pre-dominantly of entry-level officers and locally employed staffrepresenting all agencies and sections with a stake in the VPPprogram. The team includes participants from our con-sulates general in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, whichbetween them have responsibility for managing three out ofour four current VPPs. To facilitate coordination among thedifferent posts, meetings take place via digital video confer-ence, thus reinforcing one of the main objectives of the VPP

program—overcoming physical barriersthrough the use of new communicationtechnologies.

What results have we seen? Mission offi-cers are traveling more, and asbetter-coordinated interagency teams with adeeper focus on strategic objectives. InApril, I traveled to Fortaleza, the site of thefirst VPP in the Western Hemisphere, as partof a delegation that included the DCM, thepublic affairs section and the U.S. Agency forInternational Development. Our itineraryincluded visits to renewable energy andyouth-at-risk projects supported by USAID,speeches by the DCM and U.S. entrepreneurChuck Mills to the state federation of indus-try and a ceremony at the State Secretariat ofEducation honoring recent participants inthe Principals Exchange and YouthAmbassadors programs.

The DCM and I returned to Fortaleza inSeptember with the Military Liaison Office

to inaugurate water cisterns donated by Southern Commandto drought-affected communities in the semi-arid interior ofBrazil’s northeast. During this visit, Recife Principal OfficerDiana Page met with the commander of the state corps offirefighters. He had recently returned from the United States,where he participated in an MLO-sponsored visit to disasterfirst-responders in Florida.

These visits are examples of the kind of cross-agencycollaboration that has been enhanced through our virtualcountry team. As the concept of the virtual posts gainedrecognition, our visits took on deeper significance and had

NEW OFFICERS GET LEADERSHIP CHANCEON VIRTUAL COUNTRY TEAM

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greater impact among local audiences. Wewere able to use the VPP web site to distributeinformation about the visits and leverage ourmedia contacts in Fortaleza to obtain widecoverage of events.

Aside from the benefits the virtual countryteam brings to external outreach, the team hasalso engaged in effective dialogue within themission. Team members have acted as advo-cates within their agencies and sections, so that

what was once a program with little visibility now enjoys anincreased profile among mission constituents.

Secretary Rice defined transformational diplomacy asmeaning that “we are doers. We’re activists in this effort tochange the world. We have to be able to really engage and getit done.” We have all been issued clear instructions from theDepartment to think in broader terms to engage more effec-tively with foreign audiences. Clearly Mission Brazil ispracticing what Secretary Rice preaches.

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three-part series on therole that Virtual Presence Posts are playing to support thevision of transformational diplomacy. The third article willdiscuss the critical role that local employees play in developingthis novel concept. �

The author is the assistant information officer and VirtualPresence Program coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Brasília.

Above left: This water cistern was donated by SOUTHCOM to the com-munity of Muquem, near Fortaleza. Above right: USAID Brazil DirectorRichard Goughnour, rear, and DCM Phillip Chicola visit a school forlow-income children supported by USAID in Aquiraz, Ceará. Left: BrazilVPP coordinator John Wilcock visits a child care center supported bythe corps of firefighters in Fortaleza, Ceará.

What results have we seen? Mission officers aretraveling more, and as better-coordinated interagencyteams with a deeper focus on strategic objectives.

40 STATE MAGAZINE

As Ombudsman, I have been asked to discuss the impactof competitive sourcing on the Civil Service work force. Inrecent years, budgeting priorities have forced government toseek the most effective means of providing the best and mostefficient services to the American public, leading to moreemphasis on competitive sourcing. In fact, competitionscompleted in fiscal year 2003 are expected to save the gov-ernment an estimated $1.1 billion over the next three to fiveyears, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

In 2003, Department senior management made a series ofstrategic decisions to define the Department’s road map forcompetitive sourcing. Management identified key officialsresponsible for the Department’s public and private compe-titions, established a Department-wide competition councilto sustain alignment with our mission and strategy andcreated a separate competitive sourcing staff to be thecentral contact point on implementation-related policies.

Two years later, all bureaus participate as the Departmentforges ahead to ensure timely and informed competitivesourcing decisions. The Departmentreinforces its commitment to competitivesourcing through targeted training formanagers and staff.

FACTS AND FICTIONCompetitive sourcing principles in

government go back to 1955, whenPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower estab-lished a policy requiring federal agenciesto determine whether the commercialactivities performed in-house could beprovided more efficiently by other gov-ernment, nonprofit or private sectorcompetitors. The rule of thumb for whatis considered commercial in nature is the“yellow pages” test. If a service is found inthe yellow pages, it is commercial.Current competitive sourcing policy usescompetition to bring cost control tofunctions that support government oper-ations, in essence allowing federalmanagers to become better stewards oftaxpayer dollars.

The President’s Management Agendacontains a set of programs for improvingmanagement and performance withinthe federal government. Competitivesourcing is the second of the five govern-

ment-wide Agenda items. In the Agenda first released inAugust 2001, President Bush stated, “Government should bemarket-based—we should not be afraid of competition,innovation and choice. Our government must be open tothe discipline of competition.”

This focus is the catalyst to the government-wide priorityto use competitive sourcing to improve performance andlower costs.

Competitive sourcing should be distinguished fromoutsourcing, which assumes the private sector can performthe work better than anyone else. Competitive sourcingallows a cost or best-value comparison to determine theservice provider.

Competitive sourcing is also not privatization; it does nottransfer government ownership of equipment and facilitiesto the private sector, and no government employees performthe function. In competitive sourcing, in-house serviceproviders are compared on cost and performance to externalservice providers.

COMPETITIVE SOURCING CUTS COSTS, NOT JOBS BY PATRICIA A. POPOVICH

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Competitions Generating theGreatest Savings

a Parenthetical figures represent the following: monetary figures indicate annualized gross savings per FTE; nonmonetary figures indicate FTE competed.

MOST FREQUENTLY STUDIEDGREATEST SAVINGS(per FTE)

HealthServices

($1,300/813)

FutureMgmt &GeneralSupport

($13,517/37)

Information Technology($36,900/2,207)

Maintenance/Property Mgmt($27,900/4,138)

Procurement($27,400/373)

Logistics($26,500/1,448)

HR/Personnel Mgmt & Ed($25,300/1,209)

Finance and Accounting($24,800/968)

Administrative Support($22,600/315)

Environment($12,300/238)

Depot Repair, Maint, Mod,Cnversn, Ovrhaul of Equip

($7,100/1,941)

41FEBRUARY 2006

One major myth says the goal of competitive sourcing isto reduce the number of government employees. Althoughthe competition process may alter the numbers of staffneeded, there are no prejudged reduction goals. The focus ofcompetitive sourcing is to determine who can perform therequirements efficiently and effectively at a lower cost to thetaxpayer. If sourcing specialists determine it more effective,work can be taken from external sources and brought backin-house, even if it is commercial in nature and readily avail-able in the marketplace.

THE COMPETITIVE SOURCING PROCESSThe competitive sourcing process begins by identifying

positions that are commercial in nature. Once a function isdesignated as commercial, the road to competition is not

straight and narrow. As the next step, a function manage-ment team creates what is called a “business case” todetermine whether or not a competition would make busi-ness sense.

The business case evaluates potential increased efficiency,performance, flexibility, innovation, costs and risks of con-ducting a competition. The management team mayconclude that a commercial function is inappropriate forcompetition because there are either no savings or perform-

ance improvements to be achieved. The team submits itsfindings to the Department’s Competitive Sourcing Official,who approves or disapproves the recommendation toproceed with a competition.

The competition process begins with a formal announce-ment to all stakeholders, unions, employees and otherinterested parties. The process involves three phases: (1)identifying agency requirements, which results in aPerformance Work Statement; (2) developing the agency’sbid or formulating its most efficient organization; and (3)source selection, where the final winner is determined.

THE REQUIREMENTS PROCESSDuring this process, the team gathering the requirements

identifies and describes the “whats”—what work is per-formed, how often, when, howmuch, at what quality and whatwork will be required in the nextfive years. All these requirementsare contained in the PerformanceWork Statement.

The team then helps write thesource selection plan, whichexplains how potential bidders willbe evaluated. The team also helpsdefine the residual organization,which is the business unit that willprovide oversight and qualityassurance. Typically, the require-ments process can take anywherefrom six weeks to almost a year.

THE BIDDING PROCESSAfter publication of the

Performance Work Statement, thegovernment prepares its bid

and/or develops its most efficient organization that canprovide the services requested. The bid can be vastly differ-ent from the current operation in terms of size, structure,systems, processes and leadership. One of the most positiveaspects of this phase is that most agencies provide govern-ment teams with the resources needed to make acompetitive bid.

At the same time, interested private sector partiesdevelop and submit a bid based on the same criteria. Both

“The focus of competitive sourcing is to determinewho can perform the requirements efficiently andeffectively at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

PreliminaryPlanning

Performance Work Statement

Development

Most Efficient OrganizationDevelopment

SourceSelection

Phase 1

Phase 1 Objectives:• Identify business case• Create a plan of action

Phase 1 Outcomes:• Public Announcement

Phase 2 Objectives:• Define performance requirements consistent with mission• Determine the best way to buy the products and services

Phase 2 Outcomes:• Solicitation Issued

Phase 3 Objectives:• Meet the solicitation requirements• Develop a competitive MEO and offer

Phase 3 Outcomes:• Agency Tender Submitted

Phase 4 Objectives:• Identify optimal service providers• Ensure a fair evaluation• Maximize use of taxpayer dollars

Phase 4 Outcomes:• Performance Decision

Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

PreliminaryPlanning

Performance Work Statement

Development

Most Efficient OrganizationDevelopment

SourceSelection

The Competitive Sourcing Process

government and external bids are simultaneously submit-ted to a contracting officer and are evaluated by a sourceselection team in accordance with OMB guidelines.Typically, all bidders have between 90 and 120 days toprepare their proposals.

Finally, once a source selection authority makes a deci-sion, the winner is announced and begins gearing up toprovide the service.

DEPARTMENT COMPETITIONSTo date, the Department has held nine small competi-

tions. Four of the competitions were within the Bureau of

Administration, three at the Foreign Service Institute andone each in the executive offices of the Bureau of PublicAffairs and Bureau of European Affairs.

The selection board decided to keep the functions in-house in seven of the competitions as the most efficient wayto provide the given service, maintaining the full-timeequivalent of 113 positions. In two cases, the board chose anexternal service provider, thereby affecting nine full-timeequivalents. All the affected employees were either reas-signed or were retirement-eligible and voluntarily retired.

Currently, competitions are under way for the printingand publishing functions in the Multi-Media ServicesOffice of the Bureau of Administration, for bus and sedanservices and for travel-order processing within the HumanResources Bureau.

WHEN THE PRIVATE SECTOR WINSThe best news for workers is that historically, the federal

government wins competitions more than 75 percent of thetime. In cases where the nonprofit or private sector wins acompetition, federal employees identified with that activitycould be adversely affected. Unfortunately, some of theimpacted employees may have very specialized or technicalskills that are required only for the specific functioninvolved in the competition and are not transferable toother areas of the Department.

However, the Department protects employees in manyways. It has put in place a series of supports to reduce theadverse impact on employees through early outs, buy outs,retraining and severance packages. The affected bureau andthe Bureau of Human Resources will look first for other jobopportunities within the Department for those employees,both Foreign and Civil Service, who have transferable skills.Given the Foreign Service assignment system and generic

career tracks, most Foreign Service personnel are easilyreassigned to other Foreign Service positions within theircareer track.

For Civil Service employees, their respective bureaus andthe Bureau of Human Resources will attempt to identifyother opportunities within the individual’s occupationalseries and grade. The Department provides career transi-tion services and placement consideration for positionselsewhere inside their bureaus, in other bureaus and inother federal agencies.

Some employees even receive training in other occupa-tional areas. Separated employees receive placement

assistance for up to one year after separation. In addition,many employees take advantage of the “right of first refusal”provision, which demands that the contractor first hirequalified government employees.

Finally, some employees may receive severance pay andunemployment compensation. State and local employmentservices also provide numerous benefits. These supports arecollectively known as the “soft landing” package.

The Department is committed to providing a supportiveatmosphere to help employees deal with career transitions.Each competition has a human resource adviser who isresponsible for keeping employees up to date on any actionsthat may affect their jobs and to assisting them throughoutthe competitive sourcing process. Listed below are addition-al resources for information on competitive sourcing.

PMA:www.whitehouse.gov/results/agenda/index.html

OMB Circular A-76:www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/index-procure.html

Competitive Sourcing Program Office:http://aope.a.state.gov/competitivesourcing/compsource1.htm

Competitive Sourcing Program Office HR concerns:http://aope.a.state.gov/competitivesourcing/HR.htm

See also: 6 FAH-2 H-220 COMPETITION INCONTRACTING. �

The author is the Department’s Ombudsman for CivilService employees.

42 STATE MAGAZINE

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43FEBRUARY 2006

Living overseas offers Foreign Servicefamilies exciting opportunities to learnother languages, cultures and history.But it may expose them to increaseddanger. Following Ben Franklin’s advice“An ounce of prevention is worth apound of cure” the Bureau ofDiplomatic Security places a high pri-ority on raising family awareness andencouraging preparedness.

In 1986, DS created the A-OK (AlertOverseas Kids) security program toprovide safety information and educa-tional materials for children at postsoverseas. These materials are designedto teach children to avoid danger andreact appropriately in response tothreatening situations or emergencies.Security awareness messages for adultsare reinforced through participation inthe children’s activities.

At the U.S. Embassy in Lima, an A-OK program has been developed thatincorporates learning through play.Educators increasingly incorporateimaginative play and experientialhands-on learning methods in theircurricula. They have discovered thatthrough play, children expand theirunderstanding of themselves and

others, increase their knowledge of theworld and learn to communicate withother children and adults.

In October, the U.S. Embassy inLima’s regional security office, support-ed by the Marine detachment and ahost of volunteers, organized a half-dayA-OK program designed to acquaintmission children with particular risksand encourage appropriate behaviorsin confronting them. Fifty-two chil-dren, ages 5 through 12, participated.

The children, divided into three agegroups, visited seven stations duringthe course of the program: earthquakepreparedness, fire safety, gun safety,stranger danger, first aid, preparing adisaster kit and radio waves. Skilledembassy personnel, assisted by teen vol-unteers, staffed each station. Forexample, an EMT offered instruction inbasic first aid, Marines taught properradio use and the regional securityofficer gave lessons in gun safety.

The children rotated through the dif-ferent stations about every 10 minutes.Most stations included a lecture fol-lowed by an experiential component.

For the emergency preparednessrelay, Deputy Regional Security OfficerMike Perkins offered a brief lecture onearthquakes and reminded the children

to protect their heads and keep a pair ofsturdy shoes and a flashlight near theirbeds at night. An earthquake simulationfollowed and the children had to “duckand cover,” put their shoes on, pick upthe flashlight and navigate an obstaclecourse through hazards designed toresemble the risks they might encounterin a real earthquake. Tables, sheets,refrigerator boxes, tires and nettingreplaced the tree limbs, electrical wiresand other impediments that might existin an actual earthquake.

In other scenarios, the childrenbandaged wounds created with redmagic markers, ran a relay race thatrequired them to select appropriatesupplies for a disaster kit and used bal-loons and string to practice a “drop androll” exercise in case of fire.

The annual A-OK security drawingcontest followed, with the kids incorpo-rating ideas from the various stations.The drawings of the winners—ChloePatterson, Paul Rodriquez and AndrewWhiteis—will be included in the inter-national competition among all postsaround the theme “Living SafelyOverseas.” The winner’s art will be dis-played in the 2006 DS A-OK calendar,copies of which will be supplied to allposts to reinforce safety and securitymessages to embassy families through-out the year.

Regional Security Officer JimLemaire and Ambassador James CurtStruble presented each child with a cer-tificate and gifts donated by localAmerican companies.

To bolster the children’s newlyacquired skills, the following montheach child was invited to conducta radio check with the Marines. Inearthquake-prone areas such as Peru,radios may be a family’s only source ofcommunication with the embassy inthe event of a disaster.

The Embassy in Lima’s interactiveprogram gives children opportunities tolearn skills and develop confidence toconfront the unexpected. �

The author is the emergency prepared-ness coordinator at the U.S. Embassyin Lima.

BY LORRAINE STANTON

Ounce of Prevention—Creative Play Teaches Safety First

A child holding a flashlight navigates an obstacle course during the earthquake simulation.

44 STATE MAGAZINE

This past fall I spent six weeks withUnited Parcel Service as the first partic-ipant in a management immersionpilot program. Sponsored by theBureau of Administration and fundedby a Una Chapman Cox Foundationgrant, the program helps Departmentmanagement professionals learn fromsuccessful private industry companies.

My program included everythingfrom physical labor—unloading trucks,sorting packages and making deliver-ies—to meeting with members of themanagement committee and ChiefExecutive Officer Mike Eskew.

UPS is consistently recognized as oneof the best places to work in Americaand is a leader in its industry. The

employees are intensely proud of, andloyal to, their company. The ones Italked to all sheepishly admitted to“bleeding brown.”

On MessageUPS trains its managers early and

often throughout their careers. Newrecruits start by reading “legacybooks”—a series of speeches by theUPS founder and past presidents. Staffmeetings everywhere begin with areading from a little blue policy book.Every manager I spoke to reiterated thesame five principles:

What gets measured properly getsdone. UPS measures everything. Thecompany has standards for its package

unloaders and its human resources pro-fessionals, for its drivers and its lawyers.It seeks to measure the critical elementsin any job and then look for ways toimprove results.

What gets rewarded gets repeated.Reward those who exceed goals, breakrecords and improve processes.

When something goes wrong, lookat whether it was the people or theprocess. If it is the process, fix it.Reengineering is the key to constantimprovement. If it is the people,retrain them. Give them the skills tobe successful.

The questions you ask dictate theanswers you get. Don’t be afraid to lookbeyond the surface. Ask the tough ques-

STATE OFFICER STUDIES ‘BROWN’ STYLE OF MANAGEMENT BY MICHELLE BURTON

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tions. Don’t wait for people to come toyou with a problem. Keep the lines ofcommunication open. Ask why and askwhy not.

If what you are doing isn’t working,do something different and better.Don’t wait for someone above you toimprove the process. Figure out whatisn’t working and find a solution. Statusquo isn’t good enough; constructivedissatisfaction is essential.

State and UPS are alike in manyways. Both are fairly conservativeorganizations, both have very lowturnover in management ranks andboth demand mobility from theiremployees.

Similar ChallengesThe two organizations are struggling

with many of the same issues. Spouseswant careers of their own and aren’tnecessarily content to follow when thecompany or Department says it’s timeto move. UPS strives for diversity andworks hard to make its managementranks look more like a reflection ofAmerica. Traditionally, UPS managershave been generalists, but the companyrelies more and more on specialistswith expertise in areas like informationtechnology and accounting. The chal-lenges UPS faces in remaking itself forthe 21st century are remarkably similarto the Department’s.

One of the highlights of my experi-ence was a visit to the air hub inLouisville, Ky. The building is relativelyquiet during the day, but at nightplanes from all over the world arrive,

carrying next-day air packages thatmust be unloaded, sorted, put onanother plane, sorted again and deliv-ered by the next morning.

The pace is frantic, the industrialengineering is amazingand the facility is enor-mous. It can sort 304,000packages per hour, andUPS barcode technologyis so sophisticated thatno human need touch apackage during the sortexcept to move it fromthe last conveyer beltinto the airfreight con-tainer that will carry it toits final destination. The102 miles of belts, alongwith a system of bar codereaders, do the rest of thework, resulting in virtu-ally no wrongly directed packages.

Other highlights included riding in apackage car in two cities, talking withindustrial engineers in Atlanta aboutprocess improvement and measure-ment techniques, attending anexecutive leadership seminar, dis-cussing customer service strategies withcustomers and visiting the operationscenter in Louisville. It is a large, dimlylit room with a platform in the middle,called the bridge, from which dispatch-ers make last-minute adjustments toplane schedules all over the world. UPSeven has three meteorologists on staffto monitor the weather for takeoffs andlandings at every airfield into which aUPS plane flies.

While in Washington, I attended anair strategy meeting. It was an excellentopportunity to contemplate the inter-action between government and theprivate sector, as participants consid-

ered how best to present the companyposition on air rights issues to Stateand the Department of Transportation.

Most applicable to my currentassignment as a general servicesofficer was a visit to the UPS supplychain solutions arm, which providesthird-party logistics services. I touredfacilities that specialize in warehous-ing medication, others that focus onfreight forwarding and customs bro-kerage and some that provide laptopand cell phone repair services forcustomers. �

The author is a management cone offi-cer, currently assigned as the superviso-ry general services officer in Singapore.

The Management Immersion Program is a professional development oppor-tunity that enables Foreign Service management officers to learn aboutinnovative management models and best practices from well-managed privatesector companies and municipalities.

In addition to providing an opportunity to gain skills and insights that willimprove the Department’s management, the program introduces the ForeignService and Department to the hosting organizations and heightens public awarenessof Foreign Service careers.

Pilot program participants and hosts besides Ms. Burton and UPS were Sarah Hall,general services officer in Ecuador, and Tom Doherty, financial management officer inColombia, both with the City of Phoenix.

Program Participants Gain Skills While Promoting the Department

“Captain” Burton at the controls of a UPS plane.

46 STATE MAGAZINE

S A F E T Y S C E N E

Parents provide their children withentertaining educational diversions,such as a home computer, to nurturetheir interest in learning. In addition tofocusing on what kids see on the com-puter, parents need to pay attention tohow they use it to protect them againstergonomic injuries.

Ergonomics involves properly fittingthe work or play environment, tools,

equipment and furniture for the user.Classrooms, playgrounds and toysshould be designed so that children caneasily reach desks or equipment andgrasp objects with their small hands.

Like adults, children should be com-fortable while at the computer. Ifparents and children share a computer,adjustments and modifications for kidsare possible. There is also a variety of

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Poor posture and long hours in front ofa computer screen can lead to degener-ative spine disease in young patients.

ADJUST THATCOMPUTER SETUP

BY REGINAMcCLELLAND

47FEBRUARY 2006

S A F E T Y S C E N E

kid-size computer products. Teachingchildren proper computer workstationset-up and encouraging good habitsare essential to preventing injuries.

We should know how to adjust ouroffice computer workstations (StateMagazine, November 2003). The samerules apply to kids. Observe your childand follow the checklist below to helpreduce the risk for developingergonomic injuries:

• Does your child’s neck noticeablytilt forward or backward? Adjustthe height of the monitor so it’sabout 24 inches away, with the topof the screen approximately at eyelevel. Angle the monitor so there isno glare on the screen. If glare is aproblem, orient the monitor awayfrom windows and lighting sourcesor consider a flat panel monitor.

• Are the computer’s keyboard andmouse within easy reach withoutstretching?

• Does the mouse fit the child’s smallhands? Consider a child-size mouse.

• Does the chair lift the child highenough? Typical kitchen or diningroom chairs do not. Preferably, usean adjustable chair, especially sincethey’ve become more affordable.Otherwise, look for a cushionedchair that can recline slightly. Theseat should not press behind theknees. To elevate a child to thecomputer, place sturdy pillows thatwon’t slide or tip on the seat ratherthan telephone books.

• Are feet flat on the floor? If not, usea foot support. Supporting the feethelps prevent soft tissue compres-sion behind the knees.

With growing kids, you’ll need toobserve them regularly to ensure thatthe workstation is still a good fit.Frequent checks also provide opportu-nities to encourage good habits. Theseguidelines for neutral work posture arethe same for adults. Use them to assessand teach your child. Your child should

• Sit in a slightly reclined positionwith the chair supporting the back.

• Plant both feet firmly on a surfacefor support.

• Refrain from wrapping legs aroundthe base of the chair or sitting on feet.

• Keep the angle behind the knees open.• Stabilize the head and avoid tilting

back or far forward.• Relax the upper arms and, when

using a keyboard, maintain theangle of the elbow at a little greaterthan 90 degrees, with the forearmslightly below horizontal.

• Keep the wrists and hands levelwith the forearm.

Even with a great ergonomic com-puter setup, the time children spend atthe computer needs to be limited.They may not complain of fatigue ormuscle strain, but over time they candevelop the same aches and pains that

adults experience. Working in staticpostures for long hours can causemuscle tension, and prolonged staringat the monitor can lead to eyestrain.Eye conditions tend to develop duringchildhood, so watch your child forsigns of vision problems, such ascraning the neck and squinting to seethe monitor. Children should take

breaks from the computer at leastevery hour. Regular exercise is impor-tant, as well.

By the way, if your children playvideo games or watch a lot of televi-sion, note the position of the screen.They are sometimes are positioned toohigh, particularly for the newer HDTVflat panels that can be mounted on thewall. Flexing the neck back to view atelevision mounted higher then eyelevel can cause neck discomfort orinjury for the entire family.

An orthopedic specialist recentlyreported an increase in degenerativespine disease among young patients.He linked this problem to youngpeople spending long, uninterrupted

hours with their necks in non-neutralpositions while reading, playing videogames and working at the computer.Don’t let this happen to your children.Begin protecting them today! �

The author is a safety specialist withthe Division of Safety, Health andEnvironmental Management.

This child has a comfortable position at the computer.

48 STATE MAGAZINE

“Healthier State Hero” Shirley Simmshas found a way to win the battle of thebulge. “This has been such a wonderfulexperience that I have to share my storywith everyone I come in contact with,”says Shirley, who comes from a familywith a history of diabetes and was diag-nosed with the disease in 1996.

Although many in her family takeinsulin, she took oral medication foryears and frequented the offices of herdoctor and dietician. She saw firsthandthe devastating effects of the disease asfamily members lost their sight, limbs

and lives. She was advised repeatedly tothat she needed to lose weight, butnever really learned how.

At the urging of a concerned nephew,Shirley started what she thought wouldbe a typical weight loss program with acertified nutrition lifestyle coach inAugust. Within the first few minutes ofthe class, however, she realized it wasabout much more than weight loss—itwas about lifestyle.

“I had no idea what a lifestyle changemeant or what it was all about,” shesays. “I only knew that my normal

routine and habits wereabout to change.”

Change they did. Duringthe six-week course inten-ded to inspire lastinglifestyle changes, Shirleykept a daily journal. Shelearned about the glycemicindex of foods, how to eatin a healthier manner andavoid eating in reaction toemotional ups and downs,and how to increase herexercise level.

By December, Shirleyhad shed three inches offher waist, four inches off

her hips, 26 pounds and fivedress sizes—and she has no intention ofseeing those inches ever again.

Perhaps the most telling change isthat her physician, who is very pleasedwith her progress and resolve, nolonger prescribes her diabetes medica-tion. Shirley, who is studying to becomea lifestyle coach herself, exemplifies thegoals of the Healthier State program asshe enthusiastically continues on thepath to a healthier lifestyle.

Are you or is someone you know aHealthy Hero in the Department ofState? Do you know someone who hasmade significant progress towardbecoming healthier and is willing toshare his or her experience? If so, pleasecontact the Healthier State program atcallinansg@state.gov. �

Editor’s note: State Magazine willshare the stories of other Healthy Heroesin coming issues.

‘Healthy Hero’Beats the Bulge

Shirley Simms after her weight loss.

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49FEBRUARY 2006

Student Records OnlineNeed your class schedule or an unofficial transcript of training takenthrough FSI? Visit the FSI Registrar’s Office web page on theDepartment of State OpenNet at http://fsi.state.gov/admin/reg.

Mandatory Leadership Training Leadership training is mandatory for Foreign Service and Civil Serviceemployees at the FS-03/GS-13 levels and above to ensure that theyhave the necessary preparation for increasing levels of responsibility.FSI’s Leadership and Management School offers the required coursesto meet these mandatory training requirements, and other leadershipcourses for all FS and GS employees.

Mandatory CoursesFS-3/GS-13 PK245 Basic Leadership Skills

FS-2/GS-14 PT207 Intermediate Leadership Skills

FS-1/GS-15 PT210 Advanced Leadership Skills

Managers and SupervisorsPT107 EEO Diversity Awareness for Managers

and Supervisors

Newly promoted FS-OC/SESPT133 Senior Executive Threshold Seminar

Senior Policy SeminarsFSI’s Leadership and Management School offers professional develop-ment and policy seminars for senior-level executives of theDepartment and the foreign affairs/national security community.

For more information contact FSI’s Leadership and ManagementSchool at (703) 302-6743, FSILMS@state.gov orhttp://fsiweb.fsi.state.gov/fsi/lms.

FasTrac Distance Learning Program: Learn atYour Own Pace, When and Where You Want! All State Department employees, FSNs and EFMs are eligible. Withyour FasTrac password, you may access the entire FasTrac catalog ofmore than 3,000 courses, from home or office (Intranet or Internet).Courses cover numerous topics, such as project management, com-puter skills and grammar and writing skills, as well as soft skills suchas leadership. To view the complete FasTrac catalog, visit the FasTracweb site at http://fsi.state.gov/fastrac.

FSI Distance Learning ProgramAn extensive menu of FSI-developed distance learning courses is alsoavailable to eligible participants on the FSI learning management sys-tem. See (U) State 009772 dated January 14, 2005, or the FSI webpage (Distance Learning) for information.

Dates for FSI Transition Center Courses are shown below. For informa-tion on all the courses available at FSI, visit the FSI Schedule ofCourses on the Department of State’s OpenNet at http://fsi.state.gov.See Department Notices for announcements of new courses and newcourse dates and periodic announcements of external training oppor-tunities sponsored by FSI.

education training

GEORGE P. SHULTZ NATIONAL FOREIGN AFFAIRS TRAINING CENTER

Security MAR APR Length

MQ911 SOS: Security Overseas Seminar 6,13,27 3, 24 2DMQ912 ASOS: Advanced Security

Overseas Seminar 21 18 1D

Foreign Service Life Skills MAR APR Length

MQ104 Regulations and Finances 25 3DMQ107 English Teaching Seminar 15 2DMQ116 Protocol and U.S. Representation

Abroad 22 1DMQ200 Going Overseas for Singles 18 4HMQ203 Singles in the FS 29 4HMQ210 Going Overseas for Families 18 4HMQ220 Going Overseas Logistics for Adults 1 2.5HMQ220 Going Overseas Logistics for Adults 18 4HMQ230 Going Overseas Logistics for Kids 18 4HMQ500 Encouraging Resilience in FS Children 26 2.5HMQ703 Post Options for Employment

and Training 23 1DMQ704 Targeting the Job Market 4, 11 2DMQ801 Maintaining Long Distance

Relationships 11 4HMQ803 Realities of Foreign Service Life 7 1DMQ855 Traveling with Pets 19 2.5HMQ915 Emergency Medical Care and

Trauma Workshop 29 1D

Career Transition Center MAR APR Length

RV101 Retirement Planning Seminar 18 4DRV102 Job Search Program 6 8WRV103 Financial Management and

Estate Planning 2 20 1DRV104 Annuities, Benefits and Social Security 1 19 1D

&

Length: H = Hours, D = Days, W = Weeks

For additional information, please contact the Office of the Registrarat (703) 302-7144/7137.

50 STATE MAGAZINE

A P P O I N T M E N T S

U.S. Ambassador to Singapore. PatriciaLouise Herbold of Washington, an attor-ney and political activist, is the new U.S.Ambassador to the Republic ofSingapore. She began her career as ananalytic chemist and later served as anattorney in the insurance and bankingindustries and with Taft, Stettinius &Hollister in Cincinnati. After moving toWashington, she was chairman of the

King County Republican Party from 2002 to 2004. She ismarried and has three children and five grandchildren.

U.S. Ambassador to Zambia. CarmenMaria Martinez of Florida, a careermember of the Senior Foreign Service,class of Minister-Counselor, is the newU.S. Ambassador to the Republic ofZambia. Previously, she was chief ofmission in Rangoon from 2002 to 2005.Her other overseas assignments includeSão Paulo, Maputo, Quito, Bangkok andCaracas. She is married and has a son.

Assistant Secretary for InternationalNarcotics and Law EnforcementAffairs. Anne W. Patterson of Virginia, acareer member of the Senior ForeignService, class of Minister-Counselor, isthe new Assistant Secretary forInternational Narcotics and LawEnforcement Affairs. Previously, she wasdeputy permanent representative andthen acting permanent representative at

the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. She served as ambas-sador to Colombia and El Salvador. Her other overseaspostings include Geneva and Saudi Arabia. She is marriedand has two sons.

Assistant Secretary for WesternHemisphere Affairs. Thomas A.Shannon Jr. of Virginia, a careermember of the Senior Foreign Service,class of Minister-Counselor, is the newAssistant Secretary for WesternHemisphere Affairs. Previously, he wassenior director for Western HemisphereAffairs at the National Security Counciland before that he was deputy assistant

secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs. His overseasassignments include Caracas, Johannesburg, Brasilia andGuatemala City.

U.S. Ambassador to Romania. NicholasF. Taubman of Virginia, a businessman,is the new U.S. Ambassador to Romania.Previously, he was president of MozartInvestments of Roanoke, Va., and beforethat he was chairman and director ofAdvance Auto Parts. His long record ofpublic service includes serving as amember of the Roanoke City Councilfrom 1976 to 1978. He is married.

U.S. Ambassador to Iceland. Carol vanVoorst of Virginia, a career member ofthe Senior Foreign Service, class ofMinister-Counselor, is the new U.S.Ambassador to Iceland. Previously, shewas deputy chief of mission in Vienna.Her other overseas assignments includeHelsinki, where she was also DCM;Sarajevo; the Netherlands; the Sinai andPanama. She is married.

R E T I R E M E N T S

Boone, Mary L.Buentello, IreneCohen, Harlan K.Hedges, William L.Johnson, Cynthia FarrellKeane, John F.Maddox, James Marion

O’Neal, SharonOliver, Jerry C.Pergrossi, Charles E.Scaletta Jr., Thomas F.Scroggs, Patricia HaniganSiebert, Craig A.Smith, Joellis

Smith, Pamela H.Snell, Terry R.Wagner, David A.Walker, Sally M.Weant, Dana M.Wiener III, Howard C.Zuehlke, Robert B.

Allaire, David R.Arya, Savita R.Eaton, Sharon C.Gomes, RobertGreen, Damion D.McCray, Ivor JeanMcManus, Loretta J.Murphy, James L.

Padilla, Joan D.Prosser, Norman P.Reynolds, Abigail A.Scott, Joseph LouisSuggs, Melba G.Tinsley, Carol M.West, Mary B.

CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENTS FOREIGN SERVICE RETIREMENTS

51FEBRUARY 2006

William F. X. Band, 84, a retired fighterpilot, FBI agent and Departmentemployee, died Nov. 25 in Cape May, N.J.A veteran of World War II and theKorean War, he flew more than 100combat missions. After joining theDepartment, he was posted to Vietnam,the Philippines and Thailand. He alsoworked for various intelligence agenciesand, after leaving the government, served

as executive secretary of the New Jersey Casino ControlCommission. He wrote two books, including an award-winning autobiography.

Everet F. Bumgardner, 80, a retiredForeign Service officer, died Dec. 18 inArlington, Va., after a short illness. Anaval veteran of World War II, his U.S.Information Agency postings includedLaos and Vietnam, where he earned areputation in field operations as a candidand courageous leader. After retiring in1976, he was known as an accessiblesource of knowledge about recent

history in Southeast Asia.

Frank N. Burnet, 84, a World War II veteran and retiredForeign Service officer, died Dec. 30 of congestive heartfailure in Bethesda, Md. His overseas assignments includedVietnam, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines and Taiwan. He wasstaff assistant to Averell Harriman when the latter was assis-tant secretary for Far Eastern Affairs.

William “Bill” Ira Cargo, 88, a retiredForeign Service officer and formerAmbassador to Nepal, died Dec. 13 inBaltimore, Md., following a short illness.A college professor, he joined theDepartment in 1943 to help produceForeign Relations of the US, 1931. After astint with the Navy, he rejoined State andworked on the formation and earlymeetings of the United Nations, the cre-

ation of the state of Israel and the SALT talks. He served inFrance, Switzerland, Austria, Pakistan, Belgium and Nepal.

John H. Clemmons, 74, a retired Diplomatic Security specialist,died Aug. 16 of complications from aortic aneurysm surgery.He served in the Army before joining the Department in 1956.

He served abroad in Ottawa and was assistant director forProtective Security when he retired in 1985. He was living inhis hometown of Greensboro, N.C., at the time of his death.

John D. Coffman, 70, a retired Foreign Service officer, diedNov. 9. His overseas posts included Chile, Brazil, Peru andColombia. He designed and founded the training centerknown as ConGen Rosslyn. A former teacher, he returned tohis hometown of Indiana, Pa., after retirement, where hetaught social studies and coached basketball. He also taughtat Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Theresa L. Dombroski, a retired Foreign Service specialist,died June 2 in Buffalo, N.Y. She served as an administrativeassistant in Tokyo, Cairo, Warsaw, Brussels and Toronto.Upon retirement, she received a B.A. in English from theUniversity of Buffalo, enjoyed gardening and participated inmany community and church activities.

James Ackerman “Jim” Elliot, 87, a retired Foreign Serviceofficer, died of lung cancer Nov. 26 in Harrisonburg, Va. Hisoverseas posts for the U.S. Information Agency andDepartment included Kunming, Chengdu, Guiyang,Hangzhou, Taipei, Surabaya, Sapporo, Singapore and KualaLumpur. He retired in 1970.

Janet Halsten Grover, 74, wife of retiredForeign Service officer Charles W.Grover, died Dec. 25 of Alzheimer’sdisease in Gaithersburg, Md. At the timeof her marriage, she was a senior secre-tary in the Exchange of PersonsProgram at State. She accompanied herhusband on overseas assignments toSpain, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chileand Ecuador. After retirement in 1985,

she was a realtor. Her son, Charles H. Grover, is also aForeign Service officer.

Robert Louis Humbel, 59, a retiredForeign Service employee, died Dec. 3 ofThymic cancer. He served in the Navy inVietnam and then worked as a commer-cial printer before joining theDepartment in 1988. He retired with 34years of government service. He was amember of the Amateur Radio RelayLeague.

O B I T U A R I E S

52 STATE MAGAZINE

O B I T U A R I E S

Samuel L. King, 87, a retired ForeignService officer (Reserve), died of cardio-vascular disease Sept. 16 in TakomaPark, Md. He was deputy chief of proto-col and assisted in the planning ofPresident John F. Kennedy’s funeral. Heoften traveled with foreign heads ofstate. He was both a World War II andKorean War veteran. He volunteeredwith the Palisades Citizens Association

and belonged to the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

James A. Phillips, a retired ForeignService officer, died Nov. 5 of complica-tions from a lung transplant in FallsChurch, Va. He served overseas in SaudiArabia and Kenya and was an officer inthe Navy prior to joining theDepartment. After his retirement in1993, he enjoyed world travel andworked as a tax preparer.

Margaret Skinner, 81, a retired Foreign Service specialist, diedOct. 31 in Jacksonville, Fla. She worked as a secretary for theDepartment from 1951 to 1986 before retiring toJacksonville. She served in the Coast Guard “Spars” duringWorld War II.

Cristin K. Springet, 54, wife of ForeignService officer William F. Mooney, diedAug. 2 of cancer in Bethesda, Md. Sheworked on participant-training andeducation programs for the U.S. Agencyfor International Development. Sheaccompanied her husband on overseastours to Bridgetown, Paris and Tel Aviv.

James Nelson Tull, 85, a retired ForeignService officer, died Dec. 23 in Fairhope,Ala. He served in the U.S. military beforejoining the Department. His overseaspostings included Vietnam, Manila,Vientiane, Okinawa, Accra, Kinshasaand Rabat, Morocco, where he wasinstrumental in transforming theAmerican Legation in Tangier into amuseum and study center. After retire-

ment, he was active in the Fairhope Sail and Power Squadronand the Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship.

Laddie Valis, 71, a retired ForeignService officer, died Nov. 15 in Mt. Dora,Fla. He served in the Army beforejoining the Department. His overseaspostings included Guatemala, Moscow,Nicaragua, Lima, Nova Scotia, Paris,Naples, London, Nigeria, Port-au-Princeand Bogotá. After retiring in 1997, heaccompanied his wife on her assignmentto Guangzhou.

Simon J. Weinger, 84, a retired CivilService employee, died Nov. 18 of lungcancer in McLean, Va. He served inthe Army during World War II. Hisoverseas assignments included Ecuadorand Peru.

IN THE EVENT OF DEATHQuestions concerning employee deaths should be

directed to the Office of Casualty Assistance at (202)

736-4302. Inquiries concerning deaths of retired

employees should be directed to the Office of

Retirement at (202) 261-8960.

Department of State, USABureau of Human ResourcesWashington, DC 20520

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ISSN 1099-4165