The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2022 63 AFSA NEWS FSJ Editorial Board Welcomes New Members The Foreign Service Journal is pleased to welcome three new members to its edito- rial board: State FSOs Gaïna Dávila and Maryum Saifee and FCS Officer Aileen Nandi. Gaïna Dávila joined the Foreign Service in 2014 and has since served in Wash- ington, D.C., Bangladesh and the Eastern Caribbean. Most recently, she worked as the public affairs officer at Embassy Conakry and now serves as the regional policy adviser for Africa in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Prior to joining the State Department, she served as communications director for Haiti in Transition (H.i.T), a nonprofit organization that aimed to empower Haiti’s youth and future leaders. Dávila is also the co-founder of a specialty coffee company. She holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign policy and a master’s degree in interna- tional communications from American University. Dávila speaks French, Haitian- Creole and Spanish, and is currently based in Washing- ton, D.C., with her husband and son. Maryum Saifee is a For- eign Service officer currently serving as a senior adviser in the Secretary of State’s Office of Diversity and Inclu- sion. She began her Foreign Service career in Cairo at the start of the Arab upris- ings in 2011. She later served in Baghdad during the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq and was spokesperson for U.S. Consulate Lahore. In Washington, Saifee has served in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, and the Secretary’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs. Prior to joining the State Department, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Jordan and an AmeriCorps volunteer in Seattle. In 2018 Saifee took a sabbatical from the State Department to pursue an international affairs fel- lowship with the Council on Foreign Relations where she worked with the Human Rights Foundation. In a personal capacity, she also led a task force on State Department reform as a senior visiting fellow at the Truman Center for National Policy. Saifee is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a life member of the Council on Foreign Rela- tions. Aileen Crowe Nandi currently serves as execu- tive director for Asia at the Department of Commerce. She spent a total of ten years at three posts in India, most recently as minister counselor for commercial affairs in New Delhi. She also enjoyed her tours in El Salvador, Silicon Valley and Mexico City. Born with a severe hearing impairment, Nandi began her education at the age of 18 months at the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, Mo., and was part of a pioneering program that taught deaf infants how to speak and lip read. Main- streamed a few years later, she now speaks German, Spanish and a smattering of other languages. Nandi holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Richmond and a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. An avid reader and writer, she has led or joined book clubs in each place she’s lived and is currently seeking a new book club as she gets settled in Washington, D.C. Editorial board members Joel Ehrendreich, Jessica McTigue and Daniel Crocker are moving on after serv- ing three years each on the board. We thank them for their consistently thoughtful guidance and contributions to the editorial direction of the Journal . n AFSAGoverning Board Meeting, June 15, 2022 The board met in person at AFSA headquarters. Editorial Board: The Governing Board approved the appointment of three new interim members to the FSJ Editorial Board to fill impending vacancies: State Department FSOs Gaïna Dávila and Maryum Saifee, and FCS Officer Aileen Nandi. The new members will serve for the remainder of the current term, ending in 2023. Awards: The board adopted the Awards and Plaques Committee’s recommendations for six recipients of AFSA’s annual dissent and perfor- mance awards. The full list of award recipients will be announced in the October issue of the FSJ . Maryum Saifee Gaïna Dávila Aileen Nandi