The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

48 JULY-AUGUST 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Amb. Laura Dogu: When Mary Ryan was the assistant sec- retary in consular affairs and I was the visa chief in the Middle East during 9/11, Mary sent a message saying she was forced to share the names of the officers who had issued visas to the hijackers. She continued by saying that people should not worry because they did nothing wrong and she would not let anything happen to them. In the end, the only person to lose her job was Mary Ryan. She led by example. She believed suc- cesses belonged to her team but all their failures were hers. LB : What has been the single biggest factor in your success? What was your most difficult obstacle? Amb. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley: I do not give up. I’ve been fired twice, though once I refused to go and was able to turn the situation around. I have found low expectations of me as a minority to be a bigger obstacle than low expectations of me as a woman, though they both remain in good supply in the State Department. I struggle against frustration at the lack of seriousness about increasing diversity in the department’s senior levels. We have to be held accountable for the results. Amb. Deborah Malac: I was raised believing that if you work hard and always do your best, recognition will come. This is not, perhaps, the best approach to take in an organization that forces people to be shameless self-promoters in order to find the next assignment or to get that next promotion. Nonetheless, it has paid off for me. I have continued to bring my best every day and to look for new and interesting oppor- tunities and assignments that take me out of my comfort zone, and offer an opportunity to learn something new or to develop a new skill. n I have found low expectations of me as a minority to be a bigger obstacle than low expectations of me as a woman, though they both remain in good supply in the State Department. — Amb. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley