The Foreign Service Journal, December 2022

For 54 years, AFSA has been proud to highlight achieve- ment, courage, and sacrifice within the Foreign Service community through its awards program. This year, and for the first time since 2019, AFSA was delighted to host its annual awards cer- emony in person on Oct. 19 in the State Department’s Dean Acheson Auditorium. Approximately 100 guests gathered to recognize the winners of the 2022 awards for outstanding performance and constructive dissent and the inaugural recipients of AFSA’s newly created Foreign Service Champions Award, and to honor this year’s recipi- ent of the Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy. AFSA presented 18 awards in all; profiles of the winners begin on page 32. AFSA President Eric Rubin served as master of ceremo- nies before a distinguished audience that featured December 1 AFSA Scholarship Applications Available December 1 12-1 p.m. Webinar: Reviewing Your Retirement Plan December 7 12-2 p.m. AFSA Governing Board Meeting December 12 Federal Health Benefits Open Season Ends December 26 Christmas Day Observed AFSA Offices Closed January 2 New Year’s Day Observed AFSA Offices Closed January 16 Governing Board Election Cycle for 2023-2025 Board Begins January 16 Martin Luther King Day AFSA Offices Closed AFSA NEWS AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION AFSA Awards Honor Foreign Service Excellence and Constructive Dissent CALENDAR THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2022 63 Please check www.afsa.org for the most up-to-date information. four former recipients of AFSA’s Lifetime Contribu- tions to American Diplomacy Award: Ambassadors John Negroponte, Ruth Davis, Tom Boyatt, and Ronald Neumann. Family members and colleagues of the 2022 recipients and senior officials from the State Department were also in attendance. “This is the first time that we have been able to hold the awards ceremony in person since the start of the pan- demic,” Ambassador Rubin said in his opening remarks. “The resilience and strength our community has shown over the past two and a half years has been an inspira- tion. It is with great admira- tion, and no small measure of joy, that I stand before you today to honor the momen- tous achievements of this year’s awardees.” Award winners traveled to the ceremony from all over the world. They each gave brief remarks as they accepted their awards. The ceremony was followed by a reception in the National Museum of American Diplomacy. AFSA congratulates all the 2022 award recipients! Lifetime Contributions Amb. Rubin presented the 2022 Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy to Anne W. Pat- terson for her commitment to excellence and leadership throughout her career and beyond, despite the challeng- ing contexts in which much of her work was done. In accepting the award, Ambassador Patterson reflected on her decades of State Department service and lauded today’s diplomats for their skill and commitment. “I was in the Foreign Service for 43 years and I was privileged to represent the United States at the height of American power,” she said. “The American framework allowed democracy, however fragile, to arise in countries in which it had never even been thought possible. Did we make mistakes? Yes, of course. But it is still quite a record by any historical standard. Now our world has changed, and American diplomacy needs to adjust, and I am convinced the Foreign Service will be able to.” Constructive dissent award recipients (from left) Benjamin Dille, Steven May, Michael White, and Elisabeth Zentos with AFSA President Eric Rubin (center). Ambassador Anne W. Patterson received the 2022 Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy on Oct. 19. AFSA/CALEBSCHLABACH AFSA/CALEBSCHLABACH