The Foreign Service Journal, April 2007

62 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 7 ership and warmth as key to their loyalty to AFSA. No one sticks around for the money, to be sure. Or the plush offices (come visit and you’ll see—althoughper- haps the “coziness” of the headquarters building has played a role). People stay because AFSA is a great place to work. Susan shaped an organization that is truly family-friendly, which should serve as a great example for the agencieswhereAFSA members work. Big personalities, different styles, new ideas and shifting focus accompany every GoverningBoardrotation. Susanwas com- mended for her ability to work well with eachnewboard that has come in, every two years. Throughevery twist and turn, Susan hasbeen, as JanetHedrick,member services director and longtime friend, put it, “the epitome of grace under fire.” AFSA Counsel Sharon Papp worked withSusan for almost 15 years. Inher trib- ute, she said Susan deserves the highest praise for her “excellent management of AFSA’s resources and staff and for profes- sionalizingwhatwas inmanyways amom- and-pop organization.” Additional tributes included the follow- ing comments from from staff and board members: “Your professionalism and humanity over 14 yearswill be impossible to replace. You’ll be missed for a very long time.” — Tony Holmes, AFSA President “I’ve benefited somuch fromwatching youmanageeverybitofAFSAovertheyears. You’ve done it all fairly, professionally, and with a sense of humor and compassion.” — Zlatana Badrich, Grievance Attorney “You have been a delight to work for. Youhave adeft touchandreal understand- ing of how to motivate and support peo- ple.” — Bonnie Brown, Retiree Coordinator “Thank you for your skillfulmentoring and constant friendship.” — Steve Honley, Foreign Service Journal Editor “You’ve spoiled my view of a manag- er in thatwherever I go fromhere I’ll expect someone of your caliber to be in charge!” — Austin Tracy, Executive Assistant to the President “You have been a true advocate of the AFSAstaff inaddition tobeing a fair, com- passionate andhighly skilledmanager. But most importantly, you’ve been a great role model, both as a leader and as a woman balancing a career and a family.” — Neera Parikh, Grievance Attorney “If it weren’t for you, I’d be hunting puffins in Iceland!” — Asgeir Sigfusson, USAIDOfficeManager It was a reluctant goodbye on all sides. The staff knew that with a newly complet- edMBA, Susanhadoutgrownher position and itwas time for her tomove on toabig- ger organization. AFSA is well into the search for a new executive director. A search committee, with additional assistance from an execu- tive search firm, is hardatwork seeking the best possible candidate to step into some very big shoes. A FSA is proud to announce the 11 winners of the 2006 Matilda W. Sinclaire Language Awards. The Sinclaire Endowment was established in 1982, with a bequest of $175,000 to AFSA from Matilda W. Sinclaire, a former ForeignService officer. The purpose of the award is to promote and reward superior achievement by career officers of the Foreign Service in the studyof one of the “hard” lan- guages under the auspices of the Foreign Service Institute School of LanguageStudies. In 2001, the guidelines were updated and amended toexpandeligibility for theawards to any career or career-conditional mem- ber fromany of the foreignaffairs agencies. Candidates for the award are nominat- ed by the language-training supervisors or instructors at the FSI School of Language Studies, by instructors at the field schools or by language officers at post. Acommit- tee composedof anAFSAGoverningBoard member who serves as the chairman, the dean and associate dean of the School of Language Studies, a retiree member of AFSA and the AFSAcoordinator for pro- fessional issues selected this year’s winners. Each win- ner receives a check for $1,000 from the Matilda Sinclaire Endowment and a certificate of recognition signed by the president of AFSA and the chairman of the AFSA Awards Committee. The committee was especially pleased to recognize the accomplishments of those students of Arabic and Dari, as it had expressed disappointment last year that these critical languages were absent from the nominations. Committee members hope that these high-priority languages, as well asChinese, Japanese andRussian, will receive greater emphasis and recognition, as proficiency in these languages is vital to our country’s foreign policy goals. AFSA congratulates the 11 winners of this year’s Sinclaire LanguageAwards, list- ed below. Bradley Evans, one of the win- ners, was also a winner of a Sinclaire Language Award last year for his mastery of Albanian, which he learned on his own while serving in Tirana. Geoffrey J. Anisman Hebrew Susannah E. Cooper Arabic Stephen A. Cristina Albanian Rebecca Dunham Lithuanian Bradley Evans Icelandic Gregory Macris Greek Kimberly McClure Dari Mirembe Nantongo Arabic Susan Parker-Burns Polish Michael Pelletier Arabic Andrew Schilling Polish A F S A N E W S Susan Reardon • Continued from page 59 2006 SINCLAIRE LANGUAGE AWARD WINNERS AFSA Honors Language Study Achievements BY BARBARA BERGER, PROFESSIONAL ISSUES COORDINATOR