The Foreign Service Journal, December 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2021 69 AFSA NEWS AFSA Talks Priorities with USAID Administrator On Sept. 30, AFSA President Eric Rubin, AFSA USAID VP Jason Singer, USAID Chief of Staff Gideon Maltz and Deputy Chief of Staff Sonali Korde met virtually with USAID Administrator Samantha Power. The meet- ing served as an opportunity to share AFSA’s agenda and priorities, and to hear the Administrator’s per- spective on USAID’s role within the Biden administra- tion’s foreign policy priorities. The discussion also touched on strengthening AFSA-agency collaboration, as well as workforce plan- ning, and improving the integration of career Foreign Service officers in key bureaus and Washington lead- ership positions. With the welcome confirmation of Paloma Adams- Allen as USAID deputy administrator for management and resources on Oct. 5, AFSA looks forward to collab- orating with agency leadership to advance President Joe Biden’s call to “protect, empower, and rebuild the career federal workforce,” including USAID’s Foreign Service. n NEWS BRIEF Welcome to AFSA’s New FAS VP AFSA is pleased to announce that Lisa Ahramjian was approved in October to join the Governing Board as AFSA Vice President for the Foreign Agricultural Service. She is currently complet- ing a six-month assignment leading the FAS section as agricultural attaché in Kyiv, where she represents U.S. agricultural interests in both Ukraine and Moldova, and will commence her AFSA role full- time in January 2022. Ms. Ahramjian started working for FAS in 2015. She served in Washington, D.C., focusing on bilateral trade issues with India and Foreign Service operations. She later became the agricultural attaché at Embassy Santo Domingo with regional cover- age of the Dominican Repub- lic, Haiti and Jamaica. Prior to her current role, she led the FAS section in Rangoon, where she introduced 4 million Bur- mese consumers to U.S. food through a collaboration with MasterChef Myanmar. After the military coup in February, she advised the ambassador and policymak- ers in Washington on ways to hold the regime account- able for its actions, including through U.S. government sanctions. Ms. Ahramjian is the recipient of two 2015 Office of the U.S. Trade Representa- tive Team awards for her work negotiating the U.S.–East African Community coop- eration agreement and the U.S.-Korea organic equiva- lency arrangement. She was also honored with the 2014 Administrator’s Award for connecting organic farmers and businesses with services through the USDA Organic Literacy Initiative, and she received the Secretary’s Honor Award for streamlin- ing organic trade between the U.S. and the European Union, the two largest organic markets in the world. In a statement to the Governing Board, Ms. Ahramjian said she values the wide-ranging support AFSA provides to members across the Foreign Service agencies: “From personal safety to personnel-related concerns, members finding themselves in a tough spot rely on AFSA for support. Having recently been through COVID-19, a violent military coup and Ordered Departure from Burma, I am no stranger to difficult situations. I am honored to serve as the For- eign Agricultural Service Vice President for AFSA, thereby helping members thrive in this increasingly complicated world and strengthening the Foreign Service overall.” Before joining FAS, she worked at the USDA’s National Organic Program, in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and at the National Institutes of Health. In total, she has 15 years of U.S. government service across four agencies. Ms. Ahramjian holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Delaware and a master’s in biotechnology from George- town University. n U.S.EMBASSYKYIV