The Foreign Service Journal, September 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2021 61 AFSA NEWS TINA WONG STATE REPRESENTATIVE Tina Wong currently leads the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in advancing U.S. national security through nonproliferation policy, export controls, sanctions and inter- national cooperation. As a Foreign Service officer, she has served in a wide array of policy roles, including most recently as the adviser on agricultural trade and biotechnology issues in China and the East Asia and Pacific region in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. She is also a mentor on diversity and inclusion efforts across the State Department and interagency to increase underrepresented groups in international affairs. Her overseas tours included Beijing and Mexico City. Her previous domestic assignments also included public diplo- macy and policy roles in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Bureau of International Information Programs and Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. From 2019 to 2020, Ms. Wong was president of the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association and is currently a core member of the EUR Diversity and Inclusion Commit- tee. She is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish. She received her master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and her bachelor’s degree fromWesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. RUSSELL DUNCAN APHIS REPRESENTATIVE Russell Duncan is 16-year member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, International Services division. Currently on domestic assignment with APHIS’ Biotechnology Regulatory Services, serving as an adviser on international engagements, he also co-hosts a biweekly call for APHIS FSOs to promote inclusion, employee engagement and professional development within the Foreign Service. Mr. Duncan began his Foreign Service career as safeguard- ing officer for APHIS in the Dominican Republic. He then served in Brussels as APHIS attaché to the U.S. Mission to the European Union followed by a tour in Pretoria. Most recently, he served in Lima as area director for the Andean countries. He received the APHIS Administrator’s Award for his work building regional animal health capacity in West Africa, and USDA’s Abraham Lincoln Honor Award for his role in opening new markets for U.S. agriculture products in South Africa. Mr. Duncan was born in Jamaica and grew up in Maryland, where he now resides with his wife and two children. He holds a bachelor’s degree in general biology from Howard University and a master’s degree in plant biology from Rut- gers University. He joined the AFSA Governing Board in 2020. STEVEN L. HERMAN USAGM REPRESENTATIVE Steven L. Herman is the White House bureau chief for the Voice of America. The veteran correspondent has been a mem- ber 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. Herman 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 adminis- tration 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 Cor- respondents’ Club and the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club. MARY DALY RETIREE REPRESENTATIVE Mary Daly is a senior adviser in the Depart- ment of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs where she works on Holo- caust restitution issues. 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 retir- ing early to care for a family member. Since retiring, she has directed the Franklin Fellows Program and served as a senior inspector in the Office of the Inspector General and as editor in chief of the department’s International Religious Freedom Report, in addition to her work in EUR. She served as AFSA’s director of advocacy and speech- writing from July 2017 to March 2018. In that capacity, she built relationships for AFSA with House and Senate Appro- priations and Authorizations Committee members and staff, and helped launch the Friends of the Foreign Service caucus. This will be her second consecutive term on the AFSA Governing Board.