The Foreign Service Journal, November 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2018 79 AFSA NEWS AFSA Welcomes Incoming USAID Officers On Sept. 18, AFSA welcomed 18 members of the incoming class of USAID Foreign Ser- vice officers for a luncheon at the association’s headquar- ters building. What an interesting group! Of the 18 new members, 14 are women and four are men. Between them they’ve already lived and worked in 44 countries and speak 12 different languages. Three are returned Peace Corps Volun- teers; four have worked for other international organiza- tions such as the World Bank; seven come from private sector firms such as Fidelity Investments and American Express; and 12 have expe- rience at non-profits and humanitarian organizations AFSA Welcomes New Team Members AFSA is pleased to welcome two new members to our headquarters team. If you’ve stopped by our headquarters building recently, no doubt you’ve met our new office coordinator, Therese Thomas , as you walked through the front door. Therese was previously the recep- tionist and office manager for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association. Before that she spent 10 years working in the juvenile court system at the District Court of Rockville. Therese is a native of Pool- esville, Maryland. When she isn’t assisting our members, Therese enjoys spending time with her two daughters and four grandchildren. Our new staff assistant, Allysa Reimer , has been connected to the Foreign Service her entire life. The daughter of a Foreign Service specialist, Allysa attended school in the United States, Hong Kong, Stockholm and Cairo. Allysa earned a bachelor’s degree in inter- national relations from the University of Virginia in 2018. While there, she did academic research using performa- tive and semantic analyses to better understand the speeches and discourse of our political leaders. Prior to graduating, she worked at the U.S. embassy in Cairo for three summers—twice in consular affairs and once in the public affairs section. Allysa is excited to join AFSA and aspires to join the Foreign Service one day soon. She believes her work at AFSA will give her a unique insight into the Foreign Ser- vice—which, she hopes, will land her someplace warm. n such as World Vision, Engineers Without Borders and the National Geographic Society. The group has already received their first assign- ments, with 11 class members heading to posts such as the Democratic Repub- lic of the Congo, Ghana and Uganda in Africa, while three are going to Latin America and two each will go to the Middle East and Asia. AFSA President Ambas- sador Barbara Stephenson hosted the luncheon. AFSA Governing Board members and other AFSA staff mem- bers were on hand to speak with the new Foreign Service members and answer their questions about AFSA and the many ways the associa- tion can assist, protect and advocate for them. n AFSA/DONNAGORMAN Above, AFSA board member and USAID vice president Jeff Levine answers a question from the new officers about the functions of AFSA in its dual role as a professional association and labor union.