THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 87 during which senior civilian and military foreign affairs officers spend an academic year familiarizing themselves with the United States, particularly regions outside the Washington orbit. From 1994 until his retirement in 2006, Lino served as director of the Office of Policy Planning, U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua (1996-1999), principal deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, international affairs adviser and deputy commandant of the National War College, and U.S. ambassador to Argentina (2003-2006). Because his assignments were in or related to Latin America and Europe, and I served in Asia and Africa after joining the Foreign Service in 1982, our paths didn’t cross until after we both retired—he in 2007 and I in 2012. e In retirement, Ambassador Gutiérrez became the executive director of the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, which shared space with the American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD), where we were both members. In addition to running into each other at AAD meetings, I would occasionally drop into his office to chat about Cox Foundation activities. I’d heard a lot about the foundation but didn’t really understand what it was. Lino took the time to educate me about an organization that was doing some important things to benefit the Foreign Service that few of us in the Service even knew about. He lit up when he talked about the work, and it was clear this was more than just a job to him—it was a calling. In 2018 Lino recruited me as a Cox Foundation policy council member. I got to know him well and found that despite the differences in our origins and career paths, we had much in common—most of all our dedication to helping the U.S. Foreign Service live up to its fullest potential. We also shared a love of teaching and a desire to prepare the next generation of diplomatic leaders. He served as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University, where he mentored the next generation of public servants, instilling in them his love of country and dedication to service to others. Lino was also a quiet advocate for diversity in the Foreign Service, working behind the scenes to support programs that increased representation of minorities and women and fighting the misperception of some colleagues who objected to affirmative action and programs because they wrongly assumed the minority candidates being helped were not qualified. After his 29-year career, he recognized that the State Department wasn’t doing a good job recruiting and promoting some minorities. Hispanics, for example, accounted for only 4 percent of Foreign Service officers (FSOs) in 1977. When he retired in 2006, despite a significant increase in the Hispanic population in the United States, they still made up just 4 percent of FSOs. Lino was the quintessential “get the job done” kind of person and a good leader. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the planned end of my tenure as chair of the policy council, but Lino asked me to serve an additional year and work with him to conduct our business in a hybrid (virtual/face-toface) format. Neither of us had any experience doing this, but his sense of humor and determination helped us pull it off. During that turbulent year, the foundation’s activities continued without significant interruption in large part thanks to Lino. He never let anything keep him from getting the job done, and he had a way of enlisting others in his crusade and inspiring them to do things they never thought themselves capable of doing. During his time as executive director of the Cox Foundation, Lino made significant contributions to advancing the cause of diversity in the Foreign Service and enhancing the State Department’s In September 2001, Lino Gutiérrez (left), then acting assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, talks to Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Roger Noriega prior to Powell’s speech before an emergency meeting of the OAS Office of American States in Washington, D.C., in the wake of the al-Qaida terror attacks on the United States. SHAWN THEW/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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