The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2016 79 AFSA NEWS Philip Laidlaw Susan Danewitz Connecting with America’s Teachers AFSA’s Awards Coordinator Perri Green, seated behind table, and Editorial Assistant Shannon Mizzi attended the 2015 National Council for the Social Studies Conference in New Orleans, Nov. 13-15. NCSS is the United States’ largest association devoted to social studies education. Green and Mizzi were there to meet social stud- ies educators and promote the Foreign Service through AFSA’s 2016 National High School Essay Contest and best-selling book, Inside a U.S. Embassy: Diplomacy at Work . AFSA was one of more than 150 exhibitors at the conference, which attracted approximately 3,000 attendees. Pictured: Green speaks with teachers about this year’s essay contest theme, which focuses on peacebuilding through diplomacy. n AFSA/SHANNONMIZZI Changes on the AFSA Governing Board Given the mandate of the Foreign Service to deploy worldwide, it is sometimes necessary for members of the AFSA Governing Board to leave the board during their term. When vacancies occur, AFSA bylaws state that the Governing Board has the authority to appoint individu- als to fill these positions. State Representatives Sam Thielman and Philip Laidlaw took office with the current Governing Board on July 15. In November, Thiel- man took the momentous step of retiring from the For- eign Service, and Laidlaw has taken up his new assignment as the deputy chief of mis- sion in Bogotá. We congratu- late them both and thank them for their service. Not skipping a beat, at the Jan. 6 meeting, the Governing Board appointed Information Management Specialist Susan Danewitz and Economic Officer Ramón Escobar to fill Thielman and Laidlaw’s spots. Danewitz joined the Foreign Service in 2006 and is currently serving as technology policy adviser to the senior coordinator for knowledge management in the Office of the Deputy Sec- retary of State for Resources Sam Thielman Ramón Escobar and Management. She has served in Yemen, Austria and Saudi Arabia, not to mention the 20 posts to which she has been sent on temporary duty assignments. Having been involved with information technol- ogy for more than 20 years, Danewitz started as a Unix system administrator and webmaster in 1995. She has covered the entire software development life cycle during the course of her career and became a certified informa- tion systems security profes- sional in 2015. Escobar is a State Depart- ment Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University. Since joining the Foreign Service in 2006, he has served in Iraq, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Washington, D.C. In his last assignment, on the Colom- bia desk, he was primarily responsible for assisting Special Envoy to the Colom- bia Peace Process Bernard Aronson in his efforts to help end Latin America’s longest- running conflict. We welcome Susan and Ramón to the AFSA Team! AFSA still hopes to fill the vacant Broadcasting Board of Governors representative slot on our Governing Board. To submit your name for con- sideration to fill this or other board vacancies, please send your CV and a statement of interest to bradley@afsa. org. n —Patrick Bradley, Executive Assistant