The Foreign Service Journal, April 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2020 77 In fact, successfully transitioning to both the arts and policy practice and my Transitions International work paralleled the familiar Foreign Service experience of arriving at a new post ... fall salon looked at resilience, in part- nership with NYU Washington, Shake- speare Theatre Company and Ford’s Theatre. We continued with a salon at Studio Theatre on migration issues cen- tered on a Thai-Australian playwright’s work, in partnership with the Australian embassy. In early 2020 we held discussions hosted by Theater J, Mosaic Theater Company and Studio Theatre. And this spring we are partnering with the Mexican Cultural Institute and NYU Washington to focus on Arena Stage and the InSeries productions dealing with migration and resilience. One benchmark of success came when one of my arts and theater col- laborators playfully accused me of “being everywhere and knowing everyone.” Future retirees should know that building a network and reputation when repre- senting only oneself will be both harder, and potentially more satisfying, than making contacts while serving as a U.S. government representative abroad. n Michael Feldman is principal at Transi- tions International and the co-founder of the Theater and Policy Salon in Washington, D.C. A retired FSO, he served in Italy, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Germany, along with assignments at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Senate, the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and the State Department. RETIREMENT SUPPLEMENT