The Foreign Service Journal, December 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2022 53 could not be sued individually in the United States by someone injured in the accident. During her tenure, Ms. Papp has advised 15 different AFSA governing boards on policy issues. Her nuanced approach to explaining complex legal issues has assisted those boards in responding to threats to the Foreign Service. During the 1990s, Ms. Papp worked to end discrimination in the foreign affairs agencies based on sexual orientation by providing legal support to lesbian and gay members on a variety of issues. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the 2014 Equality Award by Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (known as glifaa) at a ceremony where Secretary of State John Kerry also lauded her. In a 1999 case that the entire AFSA membership followed closely, Ms. Papp secured a ruling from the FSGB that the State Department had violated a collective bargaining agreement with AFSA in appointing a Civil Service employee as a deputy chief of mission, compelling Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to curtail the assignment. Finally, in 2019 under highly politicized circumstances, Ms. Papp worked with one of the department’s ethics lawyers to ensure that 12 AFSA members called to testify in the impeach- ment of President Donald Trump could have their attorneys’ fees reimbursed without running afoul of the ethics rules prohibit- ing acceptance of gifts. She advised AFSA’s Legal Defense Fund Committee as it paid more than $450,000 in non-reimbursable Sharon Papp is greeted by Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department in June 2014. attorney fees to save FS colleagues from the severe financial hardship they would have suffered had they been forced to pay out of pocket for their own representation. Ms. Papp says she has always been an ardent believer in due process and justice, and she finds fulfillment in working to ensure these rights for Foreign Service members: “Few things make me prouder than seeing the name of an employee I helped out of a potentially career-ending situation on a tenure or pro- motion list, or getting a decision from the FSGB ruling in AFSA’s favor when an agency violated an agreement. Not all lawyers can say they love what they do; I am very fortunate to be one of those who can!” Sharon L. Papp joined AFSA in 1992, after five years as an associate attorney with a Washington, D.C., law firm specializing in plaintiff-side employment and EEO law. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctor fromThe George Washington University Law School. She is a member of the Dis- trict of Columbia and Virginia Bars and the recipient of the Gay and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies’ Equity Award and the Society of Federal Labor and Employee Relations Professionals’ Lifetime Achievement award. Ms. Papp grew up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where her par- ents worked for the Arabian American Oil Company for 18 years. She is married to Rick Philbin and has two grown daughters, Andrea and Nicole Philbin. n