The Foreign Service Journal, September 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2017 37 WIKIMEDIA/OFFICEOFTHEU.S.SECRETARYOFDEFENSE Ambassador to India Nancy J. Powell and U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter depart the Indian Foreign Ministry in New Delhi on July 23, 2012. people secure mentor/mentee relationships on their own? NJP: The formal programs are important, but for me they are far less valuable than the mentoring done by immediate supervi- sors and senior officers on an individual basis. If you have to be told that mentoring is part of your work requirements, you are probably not going to be very good at it. Mentoring needs to be a part of the department ethos and can be done at all levels. Given the fluidity of our assignments, someone who has been at post a week may be the old-timer for the newest arrival. Reflection FSJ: While you officially retired from the Foreign Ser- vice in 2014, you have been going full speed ahead since then. Tell us how you came to be the State Department’s Ebola coordinator, and what that entailed. (And thank you again for sharing your experiences in the article, “Fighting Pandemics: Lessons Learned, ” with Gwen Tobert for our May focus on global health.) NJP: I got a call out of the blue in September 2014 from then- Counselor Tom Shannon asking me to come back to coordinate the department’s response to the Ebola outbreak. I think my experience leading the avian influenza team and my previous work on Africa with National Security Advisor Susan Rice led to the call. I had been following developments via television from my bench on the beach and was very concerned that the interna- tional community did not seem to be stepping up, so it was a little hard to say no. port of more enlightened colleagues and an increasing number of superb women role models. I was encouraged to take on extra responsibilities, such as writing the human rights report in Nepal, serving as a temporary Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs staff aide and as consul general in Lahore to show that I could do the work as well or better than my male colleagues. The changes mandated in the after- math of the class action suits and adher- ence to federal Equal Employment Oppor- tunity Commission standards meant that promotions were more closely tied to documented performance, and the assign- ment process became a more level playing field. It also helped to have a good sense of humor and a willingness to stand up to outright discrimination. FSJ: How successful has the Foreign Service been in increasing diversity? How can the foreign affairs agencies retain minority tal- ent once those individuals are in the Foreign Service? NJP: There has been an enormous change in the Foreign Service, but there is more to be done, particularly in champion- ing Hispanics and African Americans. The deputy chief of mission glass ceiling for women disappeared in the 1980s, shattered by Beth Jones and many others. I was delighted to see some of the SETS, and ambassadorial classes I’ve mentored have a majority of females. The department has to compete with American business and academia for our talent pool. Ensuring that our new officers, across the board, have the necessary training to succeed—and have support and mentoring—is essential to keeping them in the Service. FSJ: You’ve been a champion for mentoring, receiving the Arnold Lewis Raphel Award in 2003 for your efforts to promote and develop the people around you, especially entry-level officers. How is the State Department doing with encouraging mentorship and establishing official mechanisms for mentoring? How should The Foreign Service depends on a steady inflow/outflow [of new hires], and disruptions in that flow result in problems that persist for a generation.