The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

AFSA NEWS 62 SEPTEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA Welcomes New Governing Board Members With the departure of Foreign Commercial Service Vice Presi- dent Jay Carreiro for an overseas assignment and Secretary Daniel Crocker for a position at Davidson College as director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program, and with a vacancy for the position of USAID representative since the departure of Jolisa Brooks in March, AFSA recently welcomed three new Governing Board members for the remainder of the 2021-2023 term. The board would like to extend its sincere gratitude to Jay Carreiro, who has served as a vice president for almost three years, and Daniel Crocker, who has served as secretary for the past year and previously served for two years as AFSA’s FCS VP. AFSA thanks them for their thoughtful contributions and dedicated service to members. Sharon Carter Lending her support to the board as a USAID representative, Carter is a Senior Foreign Service officer currently serving in Washington, D.C., as the interagency coor- dinator for the Global Fragility Act Plan for Coastal West Africa. She joined the Foreign Service in 1995 after 15 years as a justice and anti-corruption specialist. She has served as deputy mission director in Senegal, Nicaragua, the Sahel and in USAID’s civilian-military coordination office. Carter attended Michigan State University, the University of Maryland and the National War College. For her various USAID assignments, she has learned French, Spanish and Portuguese. Now living in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, she loves to go hiking as often as possible. She has three daughters and two grandchildren who are often found puttering around in her backyard. Charlie Ranado Joining the board as FCS vice president, Ranado is a senior commercial officer who has been with the Department of Commerce for more than 25 years. Most recently, he served as a senior adviser to the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service and as Global Markets’ deputy assistant secretary for Global Markets Asia, where a majority of his efforts were focused on promoting the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. He has served tours as a senior commercial officer in Vietnam, Poland (also overseeing commercial operations in Lithuania) and Guatemala. Ranado has also served as principal commercial officer in Saudi Arabia, and commercial officer in Argentina (also overseeing commercial operations in Uruguay) and Russia. During a one-year assignment with FedEx in Memphis, Tenn., he collaborated on programs to promote greater export opportunities for small and medium-sized firms. Ranado began working for the Department of Commerce in 1996. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was director of the Department of Commerce’s Rochester, N.Y., Export Assistance Center. Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards, notably the Commerce Department’s silver medal in October 2019 for his work on advancing U.S.-Poland bilateral energy issues. A graduate of the State University of New York at Brock- port, where he earned a B.S. in political science, Ranado is currently pursuing a master’s degree in climate change and development at the University of London. He is married with two daughters. Sue Saarnio Joining the board as secretary, Saarnio is a retired Foreign Service officer who served most recently as consul general in Tijuana from 2018 to 2021. A career economic officer, she worked at U.S. embassies in Mexico City, Panama and Ottawa, and at U.S. Consulate Jerusalem. In Washington, she served as principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Energy Resources and deputy assistant secretary for Mexico, Canada and regional economic policy in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. In the Economic Bureau she served as deputy special representative for commercial and business affairs and special adviser for conflict diamonds. Saarnio has served twice before as a State representative on the AFSA Governing Board. Prior to government service, she worked as a journalist in Montana and Minnesota. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and she also spent a year at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, through a study abroad program. She has two grown children and lives in Falls Church, Va., with her Mexican dog, Daisy. n