The Foreign Service Journal, December 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2020 35 continue the critical work of bringing clean drinking water to more than one million Gazans. “This award has special meaning for me because as a lawyer, I feel called to uphold and promote the rule of law, even when it is difficult to do so,” Ms. Smith says. She says the late civil rights hero and congressman John Lewis, and his advice to get into “good trouble,” serves as an inspiration. She hopes that in the future, more female Senior Foreign Service officers will be recognized for constructive dissent. Historically, a majority of Christian A. Herter award winners have been men (38 out of 46). “Being a leader, and a person in a position of authority, gives us a special responsibility to speak up, encourage discus- sion of difficult issues and support our colleagues who do the same,” she says. “This applies to Foreign Service officers of all ranks—we are all leaders in our own way. At the same time, we cannot be blinded by a desire to be constantly liked or lauded. Sometimes doing the right thing means that you will make some people unhappy.” Monica Smith, a Senior Foreign Service officer, currently serves as the resident legal officer for USAID/Colombia and lives in Bogotá with her husband. Previously, she served as the special senior legal adviser for USAID’s Office of the General Counsel. She has also served as a USAID lawyer in Islamabad, Budapest, Amman and Cairo. Moreover, she served as the acting mission director during the close-out of the USAID Regional Service Center in Budapest. Ms. Smith is a graduate of Harvard Law School and earned her bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. While a law student, Ms. Smith interned with the All-India Democratic Women’s Association in New Delhi, researching systematic gender bias in the Indian courts. She also volunteered in Boston as an asylum and refugee case worker. She speaks German and Spanish, and a bit of French and Arabic. She is an accomplished triathlete and once spent a year and a half traveling by bicycle around the world. William R. Rivkin Award for a Mid-Level Officer Jason Smith Recognizing the Importance of Words U .S. Embassy Jerusalem Political Officer Jason Smith used various methods of constructive dissent to help direct and shape U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one of the most politically charged and contro- versial American foreign policy issues. His objectivity, intellectual integrity and moral courage were a model for Foreign Service officers at Embassy Jerusalem and throughout the Service. Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and release of the U.S. Vision for Peace shifted decades of U.S. policy on the conflict. In this challenging environment, Mr. Smith was the embassy lead working with the Muslim and Christian commu- nities in Jerusalem. Mr. Smith raised concerns over public remarks by Embassy Jerusalem leadership and written content that appeared to imply a preference in U.S. foreign policy for a specific religious narrative about Jerusalem’s holy sites and the ongoing conflict. He raised his concerns through official embassy channels and, in coordination with his supervisory chain, presented his views to embassy leadership. Mr. Smith conveyed the effect that these remarks and con- tent had personally on officers at post and on the diverse and multireligious embassy team, as well as the potential effect on interfaith relations and religious violence in the embassy’s area of responsibility. As a result, the embassy subsequently expressed willingness to expand engagement with faith lead- ers and different communities on the conflict, an important signal of U.S. objectivity for both the embassy community and external audiences. Later, when embassy leadership proposed using new terminology to refer to a specific community, Mr. Smith again raised concerns about the impact this could have, both on colleagues working at the embassy and on engagement with and reporting on this community. He organized meetings with Being a leader, and a person in a position of authority, gives us a special responsibility to speak up, encourage discussion of difficult issues and support our colleagues who do the same. —Monica Smith Jason Smith.