The Foreign Service Journal, December 2021

34 DECEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL colleagues to keep the community scattered throughout the U.S. connected and informed. Through a weekly newsletter, vir- tual town halls and social media groups, she distributed FAQs, mission notices and situation reports with the latest on the evacuation status, allowances and information on when and how staff and families would be able to return to post. Mission China set an example as the first post to go through pandemic evacuation and then bring its community back dur- ing the summer of 2020. Ms. Sargeant shared her experience with CLOs around the world. She was an essential member of the missionwide task force that brought more than 1,200 passengers from China to three U.S. cities on 11 charter flights within six weeks. Once staff and families returned to post, they were required to spend two weeks in strict isolation. Ms. Sargeant and her team organized virtual events for those quarantined in Beijing and at the consulates, and also for colleagues in Ulaanbaatar and beyond. “For some posts that were just starting the return process, we offered our experiences and best practices, as well as links to our virtual events for them to join while in quaran- tine,” Ms. Sargeant says. She then turned her efforts to re-forging a community. The Family Liaison Office’s guidance cable cited Embassy Beijing’s experience, as it quickly became a thriving community again, thanks to Alisse Sargeant’s leadership. Typical comments from an International Cooperative Administrative Support Services survey during her time at post praised her efforts. “The CLO team in Beijing is absolutely amazing,” reads one. “Alisse has done so much for the community.” Ms. Sargeant combined excellent leadership and man- agement skills with strong advocacy for the community. She mentored her staff while giving them room to use their own judgment. She sought training opportunities, then applied her learning to her own work and ensured her staff had the tools to be successful. In preparation for the summer transfer season, when nearly the entire office transitions, Ms. Sargeant developed a simple knowledge-management system to keep the office on track across all eight areas of responsibility. She responded to difficult customers with compassion, maintained contact with the entire community, and reached out to sections and agencies to facili- tate engagement on a wide variety of issues. When CLO funding was cut by 70 percent as the result of closing a profitable AEA summer camp, Ms. Sargeant seamlessly shifted to raising enough money through a variety of smaller activities to fund other major community events, while simultane- ously helping the AEA find new ways to earn money. In response to international travel restrictions, she identified local providers to organize trips throughout China. Because the U.S. has no bilateral work agreement with China, Ms. Sargeant coor- dinated with the Bureau of Global Talent Management and the Women’s Leadership Group to create an annual “dual career” event to help families manage their options. She directed a new, professional-grade orientation video for Beijing (the first in 12 years), maintained close contacts with mul- tiple schools and regularly mentored CLOs from the consulates. “I’ll be forever grateful for and inspired by the spirit of the Foreign Service officers and their families, and I’m lucky to count myself among them,” Ms. Sargeant tells the Journal . Before moving to Beijing with her FS husband in 2018, Alisse Sargeant worked in education as the executive director of a childcare center. She has returned to her work in childcare in the greater Seattle area as the couple awaits their next assignment. Alisse Sargeant (at left in back row) celebrates the return of mission colleagues with the homecoming taskforce at the ambassador’s residence in Beijing, China, in September 2020.