The Foreign Service Journal, April 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2017 51 AFSA NEWS Ambassador Nancy J. Powell to Receive AFSA’s Premier Award The American Foreign Ser- vice Association is proud to announce that Ambassador Nancy J. Powell will receive the AFSA 2017 Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award in honor of her outstanding career in the Foreign Service and enduring dedication to diplomacy. Amb. Powell is the 23rd recipient of this award, and the fourth woman to be honored. The award will be presented at the AFSA Awards Ceremony on June 20 at 4 p.m. in the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Recep- tion Room at the Depart- ment of State. Nancy Jo Powell was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1947 and earned her B.A in history and teaching from the University of Northern Iowa in 1970. She taught high school social studies in Dayton, Iowa, before joining the Foreign Service in 1977. Throughout her 37-year diplomatic career and into retirement, Amb. Powell never stopped learning and taking on new challenges. She has served in a variety of high-level positions both overseas and in Washington, D.C. She led the U.S. govern- ment response to avian flu and Ebola, two of the most high-profile disease threats of the past several decades. She has devoted a signifi- cant amount of her talent and energy to mentoring future leaders of the Foreign Service. Amb. Powell was appointed to her first ambassadorship in 1997, serving as U.S. ambassa- dor to Uganda until 1999. Subsequently she served as ambassador to Ghana, Pakistan, Nepal and India. Earlier in her career, she served overseas in Canada, as a consular officer in Nepal and as deputy chief of mission in Togo and Bangla- desh, as well as postings in Washington, D.C. From 2009 to 2012, Amb. Powell was the Director General of the Foreign Ser- vice and Director of Human Resources. She also served as the national intelligence officer for South Asia at the National Intelligence Council. For her service as the State Department’s senior coordinator for avian influenza, she received the Homeland Security Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (known as the Sammies) from the Part- nership for Public Service in 2013. Following her retire- ment in 2014, Amb. Powell continued to work for Ameri- can interests, coordinating the State Department’s response to the Ebola virus and mentoring ambassado- rial seminar classes. Many in the Foreign Ser- vice community have wit- nessed Amb. Powell’s gift for identifying and developing talent at all levels. In 2003, she received the Arnold L. Raphel Memorial Award in recognition of her efforts to promote and develop the people around her, espe- cially entry-level officers. Amb. Powell joins an impressive list of previous recipients of this award, including George H.W. Bush, Ruth Davis, Thomas Pickering, George Shultz, Richard Lugar, Joan Clark, Tom Boyatt, Sam Nunn, Rozanne Ridgway, Charles Stuart Kennedy and William Harrop. We invite all AFSA mem- bers to join us in honoring Ambassador Powell, as well as this year’s recipients of AFSA’s dissent and perfor- mance awards, at the June 20 awards ceremony. Con- tact AFSA Awards Coordina- tor Perri Green at green@ afsa.org for additional information. n —Theodore Horn, Communications Intern COURTESYOFNANCYPOWELL Nancy J. Powell