The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2023 39 LET OUR REJOICING RISE TLG CELEBRATES 50 YEARS TLG President Yolonda Kerney, at right, is a public diplomacy–coned Foreign Service officer. She currently serves as senior policy adviser in the Secretary of State’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Her overseas experience includes tours in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. TLG Foreign Service Vice President Krystle Norman, at left, has a passion for leading strategic campaigns, building coalitions for change, and mentoring aspiring and entry-level diplomats. After serving in public diplomacy positions in South America, Europe, and in Washington, D.C., at the Foreign Service Institute, she joined the Bureau of African Affairs as the desk officer for Mozambique and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). The State Department’s first employee association looks toward the next 50 years as a dynamic force for progress in the foreign affairs community. BY YOLONDA KERNEY AND KRYST L E NORMAN O n Feb. 2, 2023, the Thursday Luncheon Group (TLG) launched a yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary with a festive lun- cheon in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room at the Depart- ment of State. The first in-person TLG event post-pandemic, the luncheon was part reverent con- vocation and part joyous family reunion of more than 150 TLG members, employee organization presidents, and congressional representatives. TLG was founded in 1973 by a handful of Black Foreign Ser- vice officers from the Department of State, the U.S. Information Agency, and USAID. Because the group met once a month on Thursdays for lunch to discuss and debate foreign policy as well as personnel issues of interest to Foreign and Civil Service employees across the interagency, they adopted the weekday name. The first of the State Department’s employee organizations, TLG has as its mission to increase the participation of African Americans and other underrepresented groups in the formula- tion, articulation, and implementation of U.S. foreign policy. In addition to foreign policy examination, its priorities are advo- cacy, support, and mentoring for African Americans who choose a foreign affairs career. The unique value of TLG’s policy analysis is the cross- fertilization between Civil Service and Foreign Service mem- bers, which enables TLG to offer nuanced perspective to policy discussions. TLG has championed progressive foreign policy positions such as pointed opposition to apartheid, support for post-colonial government reforms in the global south, and sup- port for environmental protections. FOCUS DEIA: FOUNDATIONS FOR PROGRESS