The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2019 61 AFSA NEWS J EF FERY AUST I N APHIS REPRESENTATIVE Jeffery Austin is a career Foreign Service officer with the Department of Agricul- ture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Prior to his recent relocation to APHIS headquarters in Washington, D.C., he served as the area director for the APHIS International Services Office in San José, Costa Rica. He is responsible for the technical/scientific, sanitary and phytosanitary side of import/export regulations for agricultural trade between Central America and the United States. In addition, he works to identify emerging animal and plant pest and disease issues within Central America and works with Central American countries to develop surveillance and mitigation measures. STEVEN L . HERMAN USAGM REPRESENTATIVE Steven Herman is the White House bureau chief for the Voice of America. The veteran correspondent has been a member of the Foreign Service since 2007, when he was named VOA’s South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi. Subsequent to his India posting, Mr. Her- man was Northeast Asia bureau chief, based in Seoul, and then Southeast Asia bureau chief in Bangkok. He returned stateside in 2016 to cover diplomacy at the State Department, before moving to cover the new administration shortly after the inauguration. Mr. Herman spent 16 years living in Tokyo, working in media, before joining VOA as a staff correspondent. He is also a former news reporter for the Associated Press and began his career in radio and television news in Las Vegas. He is a former president of both the Japan Foreign Correspondents’ Club and the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club. MARY DALY RETIREE REPRESENTATIVE Mary Daly is a senior adviser in the Department of State’s Bureau of Human Resources, where she directs the Franklin Fellows Program, a public-private collabo- ration that brings outside experts to State and USAID for a sabbatical year. She was a political officer in the Foreign Service for 23 years, serving as political counselor, speechwriter, policy planner and legislative liaison, among other assignments, before retiring early to care for a family member. Since retiring, she has served as a senior inspector at OIG, editor-in-chief of the International Religious Freedom Report and FSI instructor, in addition to her work in HR. She served as AFSA’s Director of Advocacy and Speechwriting from July 2017 to March 2018. In that capacity, she built relationships for AFSA with House and Senate Appropriations and Authori- zations Committee members and staff, and helped launch the Friends of the Foreign Service caucus. PH I L I P A . SHUL L RETIREE REPRESENTATIVE Philip Shull retired in 2016 after 31 years with the Foreign Agricultural Service. A native of Wooster, Ohio, his interest in food security and international relations was sparked by living as a boy in India, where he saw severe malnutrition. Mr. Shull’s work maximizing exports of U.S. food and agricultural products and promot- ing global food security included trade negotiations, capacity building, food safety, biotechnology, marketing and promo- tion, scientific exchange and economic analysis. His overseas assignments included Korea, Argentina (where he also covered Uruguay and Paraguay), Hong Kong, Philippines and three postings to China. His final position was Minister Counselor for agriculture in Beijing. Throughout his career, Mr. Shull used common goals in improved technology, science-based regulations, food safety standards and farmer-to-farmer visits to advance broader U.S. diplomatic interests. He relished working with other sec- tions of the embassy to expand the reach of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. n