THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2026 63 AFSA NEWS members, and working to preserve the bargaining rights and statutory protections that generations of Foreign Service employees have relied on. The Person Behind the Work People who have worked with Sharon describe her in remarkably consistent terms: meticulous, principled, generous with her time, and genuinely cheerful about the work. She has spoken openly about why she went into law in the first place. It was the desire to help people. as deputy general counsel, will succeed her. The continuity is fitting. So is the underlying lesson of Sharon Papp’s career, which is that the most durable victories in labor law are usually built quietly, over decades, by people who pay attention to small things. The Foreign Service is fortunate she paid attention to us. We wish Sharon a long and happy retirement full of great, new adventures. n I felt like David against Goliath, but without a slingshot. In stepped Sharon with years of experience to advise me. She explained mitigating and aggravating circumstances, advised me to express contrition (even though I mostly felt anger!). I continue to pay AFSA dues in retirement and advise others to do the same. You never know when you might need help, and AFSA will be there for you. —Phil Skotte, FSO (ret.) Sharon helped me at a bracing moment. She was consummately professional—empathetic, thorough, and candid. —Clayton Hays, FSO At all times, she provided wise and calm counsel. I am sure she has done the same for others, especially in these harrowing times for the Foreign Service. She will be sorely missed. —Ambassador Deborah McCarthy As a member of the AFSA Committee on Elections, I repeatedly depended on Sharon’s outstanding expertise and wise counsel as we committee members faced challenging questions and issues. Thank you, Sharon! —Mort Dworken, Senior FSO (ret.) Sharon and her team were vital lifelines over decades for me and many foreign affairs employees facing discrimination within government because they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex. Before there was glifaa, AFSA understood the human, moral, and legal justice underlying our cases, helping us prevail to serve the country as ourselves, not with targets on our backs. —Bryan Dalton, FSO (ret.), glifaa VP, Co-Founder, and Former President Compassion, expertise, grace, strength of purpose, consummate professionalism, and empathy. These are all words that describe Sharon. As a mentor, supervisor, colleague, and friend, she is, without a doubt, the best there is, and it has been a privilege and honor to be by her side. —Zlatana Badrich, AFSA Senior Attorney Adviser Sharon is a fierce advocate for her clients, the Foreign Service, and AFSA; a compassionate colleague; and a devoted mentor. It’s for that last reason that we are not despairing over her well-deserved rest: She personally prepared the two talented women now taking the reins of our legal team. —Ásgeir Sigfússon, AFSA Executive Director I learned so much from her legal prowess and profound understanding of foreign affairs agencies’ inner workings. —Kim Sullivan, AFSA Director of Advocacy She has been recognized formally as well. In recent years, she received the AFSA Special Achievement Award, for which she was nominated by longtime colleague John Naland, a former AFSA president and the current AFSA treasurer. Sharon was characteristically modest about the recognition, noting only: “It just makes you feel good to know that your work has been appreciated.” Not Quite an Ending Sharon retired on May 1, after nearly 34 years at AFSA. She leaves behind a team substantially larger, more experienced, and capable than the one she joined, a Foreign Affairs Manual modified by language she helped negotiate, a Legal Defense Fund that has rescued careers, and a generation of Foreign Service members, many of whom will never know her name, who have been better protected because she went looking through old boxes in an offsite archive and found what nobody else thought to search for. Raeka Safai, who has worked closely with Sharon
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