18 MAY-JUNE 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Disability Action Group Support During Challenging Times I was elected to lead DAG about a week before the Trump administration put all employee organizations on pause. DAG assists employees deciding whether to disclose a hidden disability. Like it or not, there are managers in the Foreign Service who discriminate against employees with disabilities, and being open about one’s disability can harm one’s career. Is it worth the risk to receive the accommodation needed to perform at one’s full potential? When someone does decide to request an accommodation, DAG can walk them through the (often confusing) procedure and explain what specific words and terms mean. We can also provide suggestions on the best way to approach one’s supervisor regarding these requests. Where does one draw the line between informing one’s manager and a HIPAA violation? DAG provides a network of people who share unique circumstances and a feeling of camaraderie. We learn from others’ experiences. We support each other during challenging times. But folks are worried about gathering under our banner, which means that we haven’t done much of anything for more than a year. Since there is a federally mandated reasonable accommodation process at State, a support group addressing such a process should be allowed, especially for employees who gain a disability during their careers. These people (of whom I am one) have little to no understanding of their rights or of the various offices with which they should interact. But I must admit that I’m not sure where to focus my efforts toward getting DAG reinstated. —Heather Pishko, Disability Action Group GRACE A Place for Christians During my time serving on the Executive Board of GRACE, the department’s first faith-based employee organization (EO) and the only one serving the department’s Christian community, one of my most rewarding duties was routinely receiving requests from employees asking to join and to know that another Christ-follower had found their community at the department. In 2018 colleagues and I started GRACE with a simple goal in mind: to connect and form a group of like-minded individuals in the workplace, giving us confidence to be open about our beliefs. While freedom of religion is a basic founding principle in the United States, in the department (and across the government) there are countless stories of employees being openly discriminated against for their faith. The Office of Civil Rights has always had a mandate to check this discrimination, but without a community like GRACE, employees were often too intimidated to come forward. Not long after our founding, GRACE was delighted to welcome EOs representing other faith communities, and we routinely coordinated with them to promote the issue of religious freedom. GRACE was working to change the culture at State, to make it more welcoming for Christians and all people of faith. By encouraging our members and educating them on civil rights and anti-discrimination regulations, we were chipping away at the antireligious bias that still exists in an overly secularized workplace. GRACE suspended operations in 2025 along with all other EOs, canceling our joint MLK speaker series with BIG (Blacks In Government), our mentorship ministry, our sponsorship of lunch-hour fellowship and Bible studies, and our advocacy for educating managers on religious accommodations. When, by God’s good grace, new employees from a recent orientation class heard about GRACE and reached out, we remembered how much we missed welcoming new members and connecting them with our community of more than 300 members around the world. We thanked them for their interest but had to tell them our operations were still suspended. Our hope is that we can once again offer an official community for employees of the Christian faith and partner with employees of other faiths to advance the ideals of religious liberty in the workplace. Meanwhile, we continue to pray for our country, our leaders, and our colleagues, and we have confidence in God’s promise that all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). —GRACE Board AAFSW A Collective Response to Unpredictable Disruption The foreign affairs community continues to operate in a prolonged period of unpredictable disruption. The Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW), founded in 1960 to strengthen the community through advocacy, outreach, scholarships, services, and networking, has worked to provide steadiness and help individuals and families adapt when official systems become strained or inconsistent. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, including the recent escalation involving Iran, has placed significant stress on families across multiple agencies. Rapid evacuations, heightened security concerns, and prolonged uncer-
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