42 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA Achievement and Contributions to the Association Award Vivian S. Walker Championing the Voice of the Foreign Service Through the FSJ For six years, Vivian Walker was a steady and visionary force on the Editorial Board for The Foreign Service Journal, AFSA’s flagship publication. First as a board member and then chair of the FSJ Editorial Board from 2023 to 2025, Walker helped shape the Journal’s editorial direction during a pivotal era. For this inspired service, she has received the 2025 AFSA Achievement and Contributions to the Association Award. During her tenure as chair, the FSJ celebrated the 100th anniversary of AFSA and the U.S. Foreign Service with yearlong centennial coverage that captured the history, diversity, and evolving mission of diplomacy. The special May 2024 centennial edition, which featured reflections from leaders such as Hillary Clinton, James Baker, and Samantha Power, earned a silver Trendy Award in 2025—one of several national honors for excellence in professional journalism the Journal received during Walker’s term, including a silver Trendy Award (2024) and a gold Tabbie Award (2023) for in-depth coverage of the Afghanistan evacuation. Her colleagues describe her as principled yet pragmatic, a leader who listens as carefully as she speaks: “Vivian’s leadership has helped ensure that Foreign Service voices remain strong and heard, even through disruption and uncertainty.” As board chair, Walker worked closely with Editor in Chief Shawn Dorman and the entire FSJ staff through a period of rapid change for both AFSA and the Journal. She provided continuity and perspective, helping to align the Journal’s editorial vision with AFSA’s advocacy, legal defense, and membership work. Each issue under her guidance reinforced the Journal’s unique mission: to chronicle, reflect, critique, and celebrate the profession of diplomacy. At the October 1 AFSA Awards Ceremony, Walker remarked, “While I am deeply grateful to be recognized for my service through my work on the Journal, I want to honor the vision, courage, and tenacity of AFSA’s dedicated leaders and members. At a profoundly existential moment for the future of the American Foreign Service, AFSA has risen to the challenge— advocating fiercely for the profession and for those who serve.” She added, “AFSA’s role as the advocate for the Foreign Service has never been more important, and I am deeply honored to have been able to support the Journal in amplifying the voices of those who serve.” Walker also paid tribute to the Journal’s editorial team, saying that they are responsible for “the Journal’s status as the preeminent voice—and conscience—of the Foreign Service.” A retired Senior Foreign Service officer and PhD, and the spouse of an active-duty FSO, Walker brought her extensive background in public diplomacy and international education to the Journal. Drawing on a 26-year Foreign Service career that spanned seven overseas posts, including Croatia, Armenia, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan, and such senior positions as deputy chief of mission in Croatia and Armenia and an office director in the Bureau of European Affairs, Walker had deep professional and academic networks that enriched the Journal’s pages, helping to expand its book review section and spotlighting emerging scholarship on global communication and diplomacy. Walker says she approached her role at the FSJ in the spirit of T.S. Eliot’s words from “Little Gidding”—“We shall not cease from exploration … and know the place for the first time.” She is dedicated to reexamining how diplomacy is practiced and narrated, and ensuring that each generation of readers rediscovers its meaning for their own time. “The responsibility to speak truth to power, to be heard but also to listen, to be passionate but not self-righteous—these are “At a profoundly existential moment for the future of the American Foreign Service, AFSA has risen to the challenge—advocating fiercely for the profession and for those who serve.” —Vivian S. Walker Vivian S. Walker
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