The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2008

66 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / J U L Y - A UGU S T 2 0 0 8 A F S A N E W S M. Juanita Guess Award FOR A COMMUNITY LIAISON OFFICER Craig Douglas Gerard C raig Gerard’s accomplish- ments as the community liaison officer at Embassy Cairo have had a far-reaching impact throughout one of the largest missions in the world. The Cairo CLO serves person- nel from over 40 U.S. govern- ment agencies with diverse backgrounds, including over 1,000 Americans and 1,400 locally-engaged staff. For his imagination, energy, enthusiasm and superior organizational skills Craig Gerard has been selected as the M. Juanita Guess Award winner for 2008. As CLO officer, Gerard administers the Volunteer Network, which organizes volunteers to visit orphanages, hospitals, special needs facilities and animal shelters. Under his leadership the office collected over 450 bags of food during the Ramadan Food Drive, which were distributed to over 500 low-income families. Through this effort he has nurtured not only internal embassy relationships, but also relationships between Americans and Egyptians. In addition, Embassy Cairo supports the families of unac- companied employees who are serving in Iraq and Afghani- stan. Gerard created a support group known as “Who Moved My Spouse?” to address the needs and concerns of the spouses of these employees. He has designed a number of pro- grams for these families and is coordinating the management of the entire embassy’s efforts to support them. One of his many critical contributions was the development of a comprehensive list of services provided to unaccompanied families residing in Egypt, a list that ensures the needs of these families are account- ed for and met. Commenting on this work, Gerard says that “their strength is inspiring and their difficulties drive me to work harder. Being separated from your loved ones for a year is hard enough, so it is my feeling that life at post should be as comfortable and as worry-free as possible for these families.” Gerard has inspired other mission members to implement their own international projects. An embassy teenager’s work with Sudanese refugees earned her an award from the Foreign Service Youth Foundation and another mission member started, a nonprofit foundation to support Iraqi refugees currently living in Egypt. Gerard has been able to secure significant resources for that group. For his contribution to embassy morale, and the “quality, quantity, imagination, and relevance of his programs,” Gerard is an ideal recipient for the Guess Award. Craig Gerard earned a degree in managerial economics in 1999 fromUC Davis. Cairo is his first overseas post, though he has traveled widely. He is married to Ronit Gerard, a USAID program officer, and they have recently welcomed a newborn son. AFSA Post Rep of the Year Julie Eadeh Embassy Baghdad T he AFSA Governing Board unanimously approved the selection of Julie Eadeh, AFSA post representative for Embassy Baghdad, as the recipient of the 2008 AFSA Post Rep of the Year Award. This award, which is not given every year, is intended to honor extraordinary commitment and activism on the part of an AFSA member overseas who has volunteered to serve as representative for the labor union and professional association at his/her post of assignment. Eadeh was nominated by AFSA State Vice President Steve Kashkett, who has worked closely with her over the past year and has received extensive positive feedback concerning her work from other AFSAmembers posted in Iraq. AFSA reps fulfill sev- eral important functions at overseas posts, including conveying the concerns of members at post back to the AFSA leadership, negotiating with post management on those concerns and other matters affecting the conditions of work for the Foreign Service employees there, and serving as an information conduit on AFSA’s advocacy activities to members at post. VP Kashkett affirms that “Julie performs all of the functions of an AFSA post rep superbly, and we recognize that those functions are absolute- ly vital in our largest and most dangerous diplomatic mission in the world.” Julie Eadeh, an information officer at Embassy Baghdad, took up her AFSA rep duties there with determination and enthusiasm, according to VP Kashkett, reporting to AFSA regu- larly on concerns about security, housing and onward assign- ments among members both at Embassy Baghdad and on vari- ous Provincial Reconstruction teams around the country. Some of her other initiatives included meeting with the deputy chief of mission on various issues, organizing a digital videoconference for AFSA leadership with more than two dozen members in Baghdad, and getting signatures frommore than 100 members in Iraq on a collective letter to Congress urging passage of an income tax exemption for federal civilian employees assigned in combat zones. “Addressing the questions and challenges facing our mem- bers serving courageously in Iraq as forthrightly and promptly as possible occupies the highest priority for us in AFSA today,” says VP Kashkett, “so we absolutely need an enthusiastic and consci- entious post rep in Baghdad. Julie has proven to be as effective an AFSA rep as we have anywhere.” Eadeh joined the State Department in 2002 as a Presidential Management Fellow, and served in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. She joined the Foreign Service in 2004 and has also served in Riyadh and Beirut. She speaks Arabic, French and Spanish. She is part of a tandem couple, married to David Ng. They will head to Shanghai via Chinese- language training beginning this summer. 2008 AFSA OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AWARD WINNERS (Stories by Ariana Austin) Julie Eadeh on a trip to Mosul. Craig Gerard on top of the Cairo Tower. Gerard and his wife Ronit in the White Desert, Bahariya Oasis.