The Foreign Service Journal, December 2022

16 DECEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Verizon to Modernize Embassy Infrastructure T he Verizon subsidiary Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) has been awarded a 10-year contract with the State Department to upgrade technology and network infrastructure in U.S. embas- sies, consulates, and other diplomatic complexes. The contract covers imple- mentation and management of network solutions at State facilities across South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Though the project is unique in its magnitude and geographic spread, it is one of multiple contracts Verizon has entered into this past year with the fed- eral government. According to corporate press releases, Verizon recently signed a $400 million contract with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in addition to three contracts with the Department of Defense amounting to almost $1 billion. “We are uniquely qualified to provide the Department of State with powerful solutions to their global network consoli- dation and management needs,” states Maggie Hallbach, senior vice president of the public sector department at Verizon. The contract with State falls under a $50 billion arrangement between EIS and the General Services Administration focused on streamlining telecoms and IT improvements for federal agencies, according to Telecoms.com. State Department Team Receives Sammie Award A team of State Department employ- ees received the 2022 Service to America Medals, also known as the Sammies. Considered “the Oscars of government service,” this national awards program honors the achievements of federal employees. In late September, Refugee Process- ing Center Director Hilary Ingraham, Domestic Resettlement Section Chief Holly Herrera, and Program Officer Kiera Berdinner, as well as the Operation Allies Welcome Resettlement Team of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), were selected as the winning team among five finalists for the Safety, Security, and International Affairs Medal. This Sammie award recognizes a significant accomplishment in fields such as counterterrorism, defense and military affairs, diplomacy, foreign assis- tance, and emergency preparedness and response. The PRM team—and specifically, the three women named in the award— helped coordinate the largest resettle- ment of refugees in modern U.S. history, providing housing and services in record time to more than 72,000 Afghans who fled Afghanistan and came to U.S. military bases across the United States in 2021. State Department officials said the trio’s work will serve as a model for how such a process is managed moving forward. “It’s really revolutionized everything,” said Sarah Cross, deputy assistant secre- tary of state for the PRM bureau. “We will see that pay off over the years to come.” The Service to America Medal award was created in 2002 by the Partnership for Public Service. A selection commit- tee made up of leaders from Congress, government, businesses, foundations, academia, entertainment, and the media chooses the winners frommore than 400 nominations. Two individual State Department employees were also named as 2022 Sammie finalists in separate catego- ries: Scott Busby, a finalist for the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Medal, and Samantha Sutton, a finalist for the Emerging Leaders Medal. I t’s an old saying in the publishing world that “there’s a good story in every man.” There’s one in every Consul, if only it can be discovered, extracted! Experience since The American Consular Bulletin was first launched has established two facts in connection with its editorial policy: First, that the men in the field like to read about what is going on in the Department itself—intimate descriptions of events which are not mentioned in official instructions or discussed in full in the press; Second, that the man in the field likes to know what the other fellow is doing. The Bulletin wants serious articles, of course, including useful hints on short cuts and new methods of office work or system. It wants travel and descriptive articles, too, and personal impressions of strange, far-away places; and it wants interesting photographs. But most of all it wants contributions of a personal character, descriptive of consular adventures and experiences, especially of a constructive or informative nature. — Excerpted from the Editorial in the December 1922 issue of The American Consular Bulletin (renamed The Foreign Service Journal in 1924) . 100 Years Ago HelpWanted