The Foreign Service Journal, March 2014

54 MARCH 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS AFSA Supports Volunteerism AFSA actively encourages its professional staff to take time out during the year to volun- teer for a service project. The association firmly believes that time spent focused on helping others is time well- spent. To back up this belief, AFSA gives each staff mem- ber up to one week of leave specifically for this purpose. Last month, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Service Day, Senior Legislative Assis- tant David Murimi joined the Congressional Black Associ- ates and IMPACT for a day of service. With direction from the National Park Service, the group spent the better part of a day cleaning around the monument and picking- up trash. In January, AFSA News Editor Donna Ayerst spent a day with a group from the Semester at Sea alumni reunion voyage digging post- holes, painting signs, clearing brush from trails and picking- up trash in an environmen- tally significant estuary near Ensenada, Mexico. n AFSA staff member David Murimi (in the green cap) and others from the Congressional Black Associates and IMPACT volunteer to clean around the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, while a National Park Service ranger offers assistance. On Oct. 17 and 18, 2013, in lovely St. Paul, Minn., family, friends and former col- leagues gathered at Macales- ter College to commemorate and celebrate the life of Amy Ostermeier. An alumna of Macalester, Amy joined the State Depart- ment in 2005 through the Presidential Management Fellowship program. She was a beloved colleague in the International Organizations Bureau’s Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, when she tragically lost a battle with cancer in September 2011, at the age of 34. Amy was a superstar: a gifted leader and mentor; a creative and tenacious multilateral negotiator; and a calm, principled and warm- hearted colleague. Her career at State was marked by the rapid assumption of greater responsibilities and deep respect from colleagues and supervisors. Amy’s husband Jim Rosenberg and daughter Kira, now three years old, were at the center of her universe, as were her parents Sally and David and brother Eric. They are responsible for ensuring that Amy’s lasting influence on others would be celebrated through the launch of the Amy Oster- meier Human Rights Educa- tion Fund. A small liberal arts college that challenges its students to be citizens of the world (one alum, Kofi Annan, took that especially to heart), Macalester cultivated Amy’s commitment to making the world a better place. The Oct. 17 event began with a performance by Macalester’s African Music Ensemble, one of Amy’s passions when she was on campus. Follow- ing welcoming remarks by acting Macalester President Kathleen Murray, a tribute to Amy was given by the current Kaiser chair in international law at the University of Okla- homa's College of Law (and former State Department assistant legal advisor for human rights and refugees) Evelyn Aswad. Evelyn’s moving speech focused on Amy’s ground- breaking diplomatic work preserving freedom of expression and freedom of religion at the UN Human Rights Council. It was also a reminder of the things we loved about Amy: her fear- lessness in setting ambitious goals, her unflagging energy and determination, her infectious optimism and her loyalty to her friends.Macal- ester’s Human Rights and Humanitarianism Program Director Wendy Weber then introduced Suzanne Nossel, Celebrating Amy Ostermeier BY JOSEPH CASSIDY Continued on page 56. FAMILYPHOTO