The Foreign Service Journal, September 2009

66 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 The new board formally took office on July 15, after a transitional, “ice- breaking” luncheon the day before for all AFSA Governing Board members, both old and new. At this event, outgo- ing Interim President Steve Kashkett looked back over the hurdles and victo- ries of the past two years and paid trib- ute to former President John Naland, currently posted to Iraq. Incoming President Susan Johnson spoke of the importance of communication, not only among board and staff but also in reaching out to AFSA current and po- tential membership. She urged the board to move forward as a “united team.” This year, 3,326 regular ballots were cast in the election. A comprehensive breakdown of the election results can be viewed online at www.afsa.org/elec tions/results.pdf. The Elections Com- mittee thanks all of the candidates and members who participated in this im- portant process. Likewise, AFSA thanks the Elections Committee members for their hard work in a challenging election year. Your New AFSA Governing Board, 2009-2011 (* denotes incumbent who has retained a position on the new board) President: Susan R. Johnson Susan R. Johnson has served in a broad range of bilateral andmultilateral posts and has extensive interagency, pol- icy and program implementation expe- rience. She most recently served as deputy high representative and supervi- sor of Brcko District with the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to that, she was a senior adviser to the Iraqi ForeignMin- istry with the Coalition Provisional Au- thority, deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires in Bucharest and di- rector of the Ambassador’s Assistance Coordination Unit in Moscow. She has served outside the department as a Pear- son Fellow and foreign policy legislative assistant to Senator Bill Bradley, D-N.J.; on detail to the National Endowment for Democracy as senior program offi- cer for the Islamic world; and as regional director of the International Executive Service Corps in Central Asia. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1979 (continuing a family tradition), she worked in the private sector as a consultant in joint venture negotiations and strategic planning. Ms. Johnson holds anM.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of In- ternational Studies. Secretary: Tex Harris* Tex Harris, once the youngest of the “Young Turks,” is now AFSA’s institu- tional memory and sounding board. He took leave without pay to work full-time for AFSA in the 1970s, drafting and ne- gotiating unique labor-management and grievance systems for the Foreign Service and guiding the legal transition of AFSA into a union. Mr. Harris is a re- tired Senior FSO who served twice as AFSA president, twice as StateVP and as secretary since 2001. In 1984, he received the Rivkin Constructive Dissent Award for his reporting on“the disappeared”in Argentina. He ismost proud to have had the AFSA constructive dissent award for an FS specialist named for him. Treasurer: Andrew Winter* Andrew Winter has served as AFSA treasurer for the past four years. Dur- ing his 30 years in the Foreign Service, he served as ambassador to The Gambia; deputy assistant secretary for Informa- tion Resource Management; executive director of Western Hemisphere Af- fairs and the Africa Bureaus; manage- ment chief in Pretoria, Taipei, Helsinki, New York (USUN) and Rio de Janiero; and has managed budgets in excess of $300 million. Mr.Winter is now retired and working as an IT consultant. He holds an MBA in finance from Colum- bia University. State VP: Daniel Hirsch As a Foreign Service “brat” who be- came an FSO in 1985, FS-1 manage- ment officer Daniel Hirsch has been associated with the Foreign Service for nearly 50 years. In 10 overseas postings (Mali, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, India, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and Turk- menistan), he helped open, close and move embassies and established new employee associations, schools and medical clinics. He is currently in the A Bureau, where he directs the depart- A F S A N E W S AFSA Election • Continued from page 55 Above: July 14 luncheon. Below: Incoming AFSA President Susan R. Johnson addresses attendees. FRANCESCA KELLY FRANCESCA KELLY