THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 31 The dissenting group’s efforts embody the Foreign Service ideal of integrity in service to mission and law. By using the Dissent Channel to defend their agency and their colleagues, they demonstrated the intellectual courage to challenge—within the system—decisions that still threaten the effectiveness and legitimacy of U.S. foreign assistance. In honoring Eric Burkett, Andrea Capellán, Andrea Cristancho, Jessica Carlson, Abtin Forghani, Heather Wirick, Meghan Waters, Joshua Schramm, R. Clark Pearson, and Sam Kraegel, AFSA recognizes their commitment to the values of transparency, accountability, and the public trust that underpins U.S. diplomacy and development. Christian A. Herter Award for Constructive Dissent by a Member of the Senior Foreign Service Carrie Muntean Speaking Truth to Power to Strengthen the Service Throughout her nearly 25-year diplomatic career, Carrie Muntean demonstrated the courage to question entrenched systems and her conviction that the Foreign Service can, and must, do better. After decades in consular and public diplomacy assignments worldwide, she concluded her career not with quiet retirement but with a call to action, urging the State Department to re-examine how it develops, manages, and supports its people. At the October 1 AFSA awards ceremony, she received the association’s 2025 Christian A. Herter Award for Constructive Dissent by a Member of the Senior Foreign Service. Muntean’s act of dissent began after an abrupt removal from her post serving as principal officer in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In the months that followed, she heard from other senior colleagues, deputy chiefs of mission and principal officers, who had faced similar involuntary curtailments with little transparency or recourse. Her personal reflection evolved into a departmentwide effort to improve accountability and leadership culture. Drawing on her experience as a Senior Foreign Service officer and former director of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Office of 1CA: Leadership, Management, and Innovation, responsible for developing leadership and management skills for more than 15,000 consular employees, Muntean convened a working group of Foreign Service, Civil Service, locally employed staff, and family member colleagues to identify systemic fixes. Together, they produced a 20-page white paper titled “Improving Leadership and Culture at State,” which Muntean circulated throughout the department’s seventh floor shortly before retiring in April 2025. The paper proposed practical, forward-looking reforms: requiring committee approval for curtailment of deputy chiefs of mission and principal officers; expanding mandatory leadership training; instituting annual 360-degree feedback for all senior leaders; and mandating professional coaching for those in top positions. Recognizing resource constraints, Muntean also advocated for establishing an Employee Support Unit as a hub to guide employees to the right offices for issues ranging from harassment and workplace conflict to emergency travel logistics. She envisioned an AI-based triage interface to streamline inquiries and save valuable staff time. “It became obvious that State lacks a good structure for constructive dissent focused on people-related processes,” she later noted. “The Dissent Channel exists only for policy concerns— another example of the department undervaluing its most precious resource, our people.” Her proposals, though welcomed by many, met predictable resistance from some senior officials. Muntean persisted, confident that institutional improvement depends on honest self-examination. “Dissent,” she emphasized, “does not mean disloyalty or disobedience.” Carrie Muntean Carrie Muntean and several state secretaries of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, cutting the ribbon for the U.S. booth at Expointer, the largest agricultural fair in South America, August 2024.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=