The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

M A R C H 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 47 ANNUAL REPORT American Foreign Service Association 2011 A F S A N E W S E ach year,AFSA recognizes Foreign Serv- ice members with two distinct sets of awards — for constructive dissent and for exemplary performance—and also honors one individual for his or her outstanding contributions toAmerican diplomacy over a lifetime. Our annual awards ceremony took place in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception room on June 23, 2011. This year Ambassador Rozanne L.‘Roz’Ridgway was honored with the prestigious Lifetime Contribution to American Diplomacy Award. She was introduced by then-Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Am- bassador Bill Burns, who noted that her many career highlights include her role as top negotiator in all five U.S.-Soviet summits during the 1980s. Amb. Ridgway accepted her award to loud applause, generously ac- knowledging her mentors, colleagues and her husband, Captain Theodore E. Deming, USCG retired. Three Foreign Service members received Construc- tive Dissent Awards: MaurizioVisani (the F.Allen“Tex”Har- ris Award for an FS specialist); Joel Ehrendreich (theWilliam R. Rivkin Award for a mid-level officer); and James Bayuk (the Christian A. Herter Award for a senior-level officer). AFSA’s Constructive Dissent Awards are unique. They rec- ognize members of the Foreign Service who have had the courage and integrity to stand up and disagree with a policy or management issue within the system, offering construc- tive alternatives, knowing it may not always be themost pop- ular course of action. This year, the fourth constructive dissent award, the W. Averell Harriman Award for a junior- level officer, was not given. At the same ceremony,AFSA also presented awards for ex- emplary performance to Foreign Service employees and fam- ily members. Marie Farrar and Charla Chaudhry each received the Avis Bohlen Award for an FS family member; Michael L. Vining received the M. Juanita Guess Award for a Community Liaison Officer; Ann E. Rehme was honored with the Nelson B. Delavan Award for a Foreign Service Of- fice Management Specialist; and Lawrence A. Fields was named AFSA Post Representative of the Year. The awards ceremony was attended by many guests and dignitaries, all of whomenthusiastically cheered the awardees. Past recipients of the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award Frank Carlucci, Tom Boyatt and Bruce Laingen were in the front row. Speaking from the audience, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood spotlighted AFSA’s dissent award program, emphasizing its importance and the vital role that each of the dissent award winners plays as a model for others. During the year, AFSA presented other awards, including the Sinclaire Language Awards that honor FS foreign lan- guage students for outstanding accomplishments in the study of a difficult language and its associated culture. This award benefits from a bequest made byMatildaW. Sinclaire, a former Foreign Service officer. The 2011 winners were: Daniel Heath Bailey for Latvian; Eric M. Frater for Vietnamese; Melanie Harris Higgins for Indonesian; Bradley Hurst for Hungarian; Andrew J. Partin for Georgian; Daniel Rakove for Mongolian; Stuart Madgett Smith for Greek; Thomas Venner for Tagalog; and Vaida Vidugiris for Greek. AFSA also sponsors the George Kennan Writing Award, given each year to honor the best paper written by a State Department employee enrolled at the NationalWar College. This year’s winner was Todd C. Holmstrom. AFSA Awards: A Unique Tradition B Y P ERRI G REEN , S PECIAL A WARDS AND O UTREACH C OORDINATOR AFSA President Susan Johnson welcomes a capacity crowd to the Ben- jamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room for AFSA’s annual Awards Ceremony for Dissent and Performance on June 23. DONNA AYERST