The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2019 57 AFSA NEWS Meet the 2019-2021 AFSAGoverning Board The American Foreign Service Association is proud to intro- duce the elected officers and representatives of the 2019- 2021 Governing Board. The AFSA Governing Board meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 12 to 1:30 p.m. at AFSA headquarters. AFSA members are welcome to attend board meetings. ER I C RUB I N PRESIDENT Eric Rubin comes toAFSA fromhis most recent posting as U.S. ambassador to Bul- garia. His previous positions include deputy chief of mission in Moscow, deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, consul general in Chiang Mai, executive assistant to the under secretary for political affairs, assistantWhite House press secre- tary and National Security Council director for public affairs, and Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Ambassador Rubin joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and is a Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service. In 1994, he was a recipient of a groupWilliam R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent by Mid-Level Officers for his work on the Bosnia crisis. Amb. Rubin is a former member of The Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board and a career-long AFSAmember. KEN KERO -MENTZ SECRETARY Ken Kero-Mentz joined the State Depart- ment in January 2000. He has served over- seas in Rio de Janeiro, Baghdad, Berlin, Colombo and Erbil, and worked domes- tically in the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs and Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He served most recently as AFSA’s vice president for State where he fought to enhance AFSA’s dual mission of defending the Foreign Service and protecting Foreign Service employees. An economic-coned officer, Mr. Kero-Mentz served as AFSA post rep in Berlin, and received the AFSA Post Rep of the Year Award in 2009. He served two tours on the AFSA Governing Board from 2011 to 2015. Prior to joining State, Mr. Kero- Mentz spent five years on Capitol Hill covering a wide range of legislative issues, including foreign policy. He earned his bachelor’s degree in international affairs with a minor in Ger- man and a master’s degree in public administration from the George Washington University. V I RG I N I A BENNETT TREASURER Virginia Bennett, senior director for inter- national programs at CNA Corporation, is a retired Senior Foreign Service officer who served as principal deputy assistant secre- tary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 2014 to 2017. From 2011 to 2014, she served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Athens. Ms. Bennett also served in Bogota, Tokyo and Manila; in New York City at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations; and in Washington, D.C., in the State Department’s Operations Center and in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Ms. Bennett speaks French, Spanish and Japanese. She graduated fromWellesley College and has a master’s degree in business administration from Cornell University. THOMAS YAZDGERD I DEPARTMENT OF STATE VICE PRESIDENT A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Tom Yazdgerdi entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1991 and recently served as special envoy for Holocaust issues in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State. He has served as director of the Office of South Central European Affairs, political counselor at Embassy Kabul, head of Consulate Kirkuk and deputy political counselor for Iran affairs at Embassy Baghdad. He also served as deputy chief of mission and political-economic chief at Embassy Pristina, in the run-up to and aftermath of Kosovo’s independence. Other assignments include Panama City, Bratislava, Tirana and Athens, as well as positions in the European Bureau (Czech desk) and the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and as senior Balkans program officer with the National Demo- cratic Institute in Washington, D.C. Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Yazdgerdi worked on Capitol Hill. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Central European history, security studies and American diplomatic history from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.