The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2010

A F S A N E W S 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 1 0 2010 AFSA CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWARD WINNERS D avid Zwach, a Foreign Service security engineering officer who is chief of the Information Assurance Branch at the Diplomatic Security Training Center in Dunn Loring, Va., does not give up easily. When management pushed back on his proposal to provide Foreign Service specialists tenuring certificates signed by the Secretary of State (similar to the com- missioning certificates issued to generalists), he redoubled his efforts. Over six years, he lobbied the department at all levels until his proposal was approved. In 2003, Zwach inherited an original Civil War commission- ing certificate signed by Abraham Lincoln and undersigned by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The design, wording and seal were similar to those of current Foreign Service generalist com- missioning certificates, with text pointing to the president’s “spe- cial trust and confidence” in the recipient’s “patriotism, valor, fidelity and abilities.” Zwach, who has served in the Foreign Service for 23 years, including in the Middle East, was inspired. He researched the history and significance of appointment certificates. He studied the wording of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, which states that FS specialists are all appointed by the Secretary of State. And he realized that recognizing specialist appointments with a certifi- cate would serve the public interest and raise morale. Chief Information Officer Susan Swart, who works with Zwach and nominated him for the Harris Award, points out that Zwach “correctly understood the sentiment of the specialist corps and appreciated that such a certificate would 1) recognize the value of the specialist to the department; 2) reinforce the concept that all members of the Foreign Service are part of a team and share the same commitment and sacri- fice; and 3) provide a lasting record of the specialist’s achievement in gaining tenure.” In 2004, Zwach submitted a proposal to State’s Bureau of Human Resources to create an appointment certificate for FS specialists, but HR did not adopt it. Zwach then turned to AFSA, who also lobbied the department, sent several letters to the director general and even drafted a design for the certificate. It took several years — as well as correspondence and/or meetings with HR, the director general, the Secretary’s suggestion box, the Executive Secretariat staff, the Sounding Board, office directors and the Bureau of Information Resources Management — before HR made a counterproposal in 2006. This counterpropos- al was an abbreviated version of the generalist commis- sioning certificate. Zwach pressed for a specialist certificate that was equal in inspirational value to the generalist version. When the administration approved what at first appeared to be a satisfactory specialist certificate in 2008, there was one catch: the Secretary of State would not sign this certificate. Instead, the director general would. “David recognized the value of the Secretary’s signature,” says Swart, “and understood this was a key factor for all specialists. Accordingly, in 2009, he submitted a proposal to the Sounding Board that garnered an unprecedented number of comments.” It took until this year — six years after Zwach began his cam- paign— to achieve success. In March, Secretary Clinton agreed that all specialists would receive a certificate with her signature. “This initiative will help us more fully acknowledge the con- tributions by Foreign Service specialists and offer them a mea- sure of recognition that has been long overdue,” says Jeffrey W. Culver, principal deputy assistant secretary and director of the Diplomatic Security Service. Swart lauds Zwach’s “remarkable perseverance,” adding: “He has lobbied many senior officers in the department, exchanged over 400 e-mails, reviewed dozens of designs and, ultimately, gained agreement on an impressive final format.” Zwach was able to renew his efforts with the change of administration, and, Swart says, “he grasped the opportunity offered by the Sounding Board and orchestrated the specialist campaign that persuaded department management that such a certificate, signed by the Secretary, was a proposal whose time had come.” ❏ The F. Allen “Tex”Harris Award FOR A FOREIGN SERVICE SPECIALIST David Zwach Zwach at Camp Stryker in Baghdad, Iraq, November 2008. As Officer in Charge of the Engineering Service Center-Embassy Abu Dhabi, he managed technical security operations in much of the Middle East.