State Magazine | FSN Awards (February 2010)

8/14/2019 State Magazine | FSN Awards (February 2010)

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ExemplaryServiceFSNs honored or extra-mile eforts in 2009 /// By Bill Palmer As in previous years, the winners o the Depart-

ments 2009 Foreign Service National Employee o theYear award serve mostly in posts where internal andexternal stresses caused by war, terrorism and tensebilateral relations gave outstanding local employeesthe opportunity to show their mettle.

The winners represent many others like themselves.As Under Secretary or Political A airs William Burnssaid at the Department Awards Ceremony in Novem-ber, Our Locally Employed Sta are the backbone o every U.S. embassy and consulate. None o our mis-sions could unction without the stead ast dedication,hard work and loyalty o our enormously talentedFSN colleagues.

Coordinated by the Bureau o Human ResourcesO fce o Overseas Employment, the awards honor six regional FSNs o the Year. This years winners wereselected rom among dozens o outstanding nomi-nees. One o the six, Nigel Whitehouse, was namedDepartment-wide FSN o the Year.

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28 State Magazine February 2010

AF andFSN of the Year

Whitehouse, the managementoperations coordinator at the U.S.Embassy in NDjamena, is the2009 Foreign Service National o the Year. Nominated by the Bureauo A rican A airs, he was cited

or 30 years o extraordinary contributions to the advancemento U.S. interests in Chad.

His history with the country and the embassy actually goesback to 1977, when he, his wi eand their two children pulled upstakes in remote Dawson Creek,Canada, and set o or Chad aspioneers o the Bahai aith.I had to fnd it on a map, hesaid. The couple had to supportthemselves, so they began workingat the U.S. Embassy. Two yearslater, he experienced his frst warand frst evacuation. He wouldplay a key role in at least sevenmore evacuations, but 1979 wasthe worst, he said, because it was

his frst experience with diving orcover as bullets whizzed past.

A ter putting embassy amilieson planes and evacuating toCameroon, he was asked to returnto Chad in 1981 and reopen theembassyin three weeks. With$5,000 in local currency, he paido the combatants who had beenliving in flth in the ambassadorsresidence, cleaned, painted andset it up as a chancery. Then, heand his old general services o fcecolleagues converted the ormerdeputy chie o mission residenceinto the ambassadors residence. Atthe frst diplomatic unction there,Coke crates served as chairs andelectrical cable spools as tables.

During subsequentevacuations, Whitehouse alwaysremained behind to sa eguardlocal embassy employees,embassy assets and U.S. interests,the embassy nominating cablesaid. His resource ul, untiringand heroic e orts in 2008 are only a small sample o his invaluable

contributions to keeping the U.S.Mission running over decades,the embassy said.

In 2008, during a ailed coup,Whitehouse drove through mortarand tank fre to bring strandedexpatriate amilies to evacua-tion points. He singlehandedly ensured that embassy acilitieswere sa e, that embassy employeeswere paid and ed, and that impor-tant messages were transmitted,despite the shutdown o the phonesystem, the embassy said.

Finally, Whitehouse guided theprocess o building a new embassy compound through Chads bu-reaucratic mazean achievementthe embassy described as a tourde orce.

A ew other things thenominating cable didnt mention:Whitehouse and his wi e over the years have adopted 15 children,

ounded schools that have edu-cated thousands o students andtended a arm outside NDjamena.

A ter the frst war, the amily

considered returning to Canada,Whitehouse said, but it seemedlike we could be so much moreuse ul where we were.

EAPHyun Sook Choi, supervisory

visa specialist at the U.S. Embassyin Seoul, is the FSN o the Year

or the Bureau o East Asian andPacifc A airs. She was cited

or her impressive contribu-tions and determined actionsin creating a nonimmigrantvisa operation with improvedcustomer service, enhanced staknowledge and improved work-ing conditions in the wake o theVisa Waiver Program.

Choi came to the embassy nearly 19 years ago already havinan international background. Thedaughter o a United Nations

o fcial, she had worked or the1988 Seoul Olympic Commit-tee and or oreign broadcastagencies. But she had aced ew challenges as di fcult as her rolein managing the downsizing o


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Choi

Paulosthe visa section and dealing withrelated morale issues.

Seoul went rom processing thelargest number o nonimmigrantvisa cases in the worldcloseto 500,000to a workload o 150,000 cases. O course, Koreasaccession to the waiver program inlate 2008 was a boon or bilateralrelations. But in the visa sectionthere was ear, Choi said, as theelimination o FSN positionsloomed. We realized there was noturning back.

She brainstormed with othersenior FSNs on how to easethe blow. We suggested usingnatural attrition and asked orembassy support in fnding jobs

or downsized employees inother embassy sections as well asthrough the American Chambero Commerce and Korean Min-istry o Foreign A airs, she said.Eventually, many o the FSNs gothired by the embassy or the U.S.military, she added.

The embassy nominating cablesaid consular management usedMs. Chois unerring advice, guid-ance and cultural insights to shoreup morale. She was an invaluable

conduit between managementand sta . That was hard, she said.Speaking to FSNs, I had to speak

or management, and to manage-ment I had to give the concernsand eelings o FSNs. Trying tobalance that wasnt easy. Shedidnt know what would happento her own job, either, but I hadto put that aside.

Choi played a signifcant rolein reorganizing the embassys NIVunit, the embassy said, astutely accounting or the strengths o supervisors and FSNs as shehelped guide the consolidation o fve processing teams into three.

Choi is married and has adaughter.

SCAAnil Raj Paulose, a security

investigator at the U.S. ConsulateGeneral in Mumbai, is the FSN o the Year or the Bureau o Southand Central Asian A airs. He wascited or exceptional per ormanceto the U.S. Mission in India in

urthering the goals o diplomacy,enhancing security and strength-ening relationships.

The most dramatic example

was his per ormance during theterrorist attacks on Nov. 26, 2008.As the only security investigator atpost (the other one had recently died), he started receiving calls at10:30 at night when the attacksbegan. He said at frst he thoughtit was just a are-up o gangwar are. Little did he know thathe would barely sleep or the next

our days.He spent the night on the

phone, passing in ormation romthe police to the assistant regionalsecurity o fcer. Then he went out.Risking his own sa ety, the mis-sions nominating cable said, Anilarrived on the attack scene whilethe security orces were attempt-ing to retake the hotel so he couldprovide frsthand in ormation tothe Emergency Action Committee.

As events un olded the nextew days, Anil repeatedly es-

corted consulate personnel, an FBIinvestigative team and memberso the Diplomatic Security Serviceresponse team into dangeroussituations at the Jewish Center andthe Taj Mahal and Trident/Oberoihotels to rescue Americans andlook or missing Americans.

Paulose had care ully cultivatedrelationships with the police andhotel security managers over the years, so he was able to get beyondbarricades and get room numberso American guests. It was hard

or him when he saw gruesomephotos o death scenes and dis-covered some o his close contactshad su ered grievous losses, suchas the general manager o the TajMahal Hotel, whose wi e and twosons were killed.

The Mumbai attacks were notthe frst example o Paulosesinitiative. In 2006, he and twoconsulate colleagues were almostkilled when the train car they hadbeen riding in was bombed by aMuslim terrorist group just a terthey had le t it. With the explo-sion still ringing in his ears, Anilrushed to the mangled train toassist victims while simultaneously making calls to the consulate towarn other consulate employees,the nominating cable said.

Paulose has worked at theconsulate nearly 10 years. He ismarried and has a son.


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FSN of the Year*

30 State Magazine February 2010

KharabadzeNEA

Rashad Mansour, a security investigator at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, is the FSN o theYear or the Bureau o NearEastern A airs. He was cited orprotecting the embassy andAmericans throughout Syria intimes o crisis.

U.S. relations with Syria havelong been tense; daily protestmarches to the embassysome-times two or three in a daywerethe norm during the height o the Iraq war, Mansour said. Thechallenged relationship becameeven worse in October 2008 amidreports o an alleged U.S. military incursion into Syria. Accordingto the embassy nominating cable,Rashad sprang into action toprotect the Mission amid a torrento anti-American rhetoric, the

orced closure o our CulturalCenter and American School, and

demonstrations against theembassy. He got the cooperationo his Syrian security servicescontacts in diverting the protesters

rom U.S. sites, even though many o them were personally outragedover the alleged incursion, theembassy said.

Mansour eels his successdepends on personal relation-ships. The police understand my position, he said.

He noted that ormer PresidentJimmy Carter, the Secretary o State and congressional del-egations have visited Damascus

requently, and, he said, I amthe frst one at the airport. ForPresident Carters Secret Servicedetail, he coordinated unprec-edented access to the presidentialpalace and even arranged access toHamas acilities, the embassy said,despite a decades-long embargoon contact with that organization.

While he has helped many VIPs, Mansour has also helpedAmerican-citizen childrenkidnapped by Syrian parents andtrapped in the country. He didntwant to discuss his detective work in detail, but the embassy notedthat had assisted the con-sular section on many such cases,canvassing neighbors to gleanin ormation on at-risk childrenswhereabouts.

Mansour, the senior FSN at theembassy, started working there in1975 as a guard and, except or his years o military service, has beenthere ever since. He has been FSNo the Year three timesonce orthe embassy and twice or NEA.He is married and has a daughterand son.

EURMariam Marika Kharabadze,

American Citizen Services

assistant, is the FSN o the Yearor the Bureau o European and

Eurasian A airs. She was cited outstanding service to Americancitizens and colleagues at the U.SEmbassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, dur-ing the August 2008 war betweenGeorgia and Russia.

A ormer visa clerk, Khar-abadze had been hired by American Citizen Services buthad not o fcially started whenthe war began and rightenedU.S. citizens began streaming tothe embassy. We started 24-hourACS operationswithout atrained ACS assistant, theembassy nominating cable said.This was, however, apparent tono one due to Marikas constantpro essionalism, compassion and

courage. She said she could hearthe bombs alling as panickedAmericans arrived. She wasdetermined not to show her ownpanic even though she knew herown amily might be in danger.


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I was reading the ForeignA airs Manualstudying anddoing at the same time, Khar-abadze said. She quickly becamean expert in processing passports.

Kharabadze, who is single,volunteered or long night

shi ts at the embassy, which isnear where the Georgian army was setting up the citys lastde enses. I didnt have time to

eel exhausted, she said.There were about 50 cases o

unaccompanied minor childrenwho were staying with rela-tivesmostly grandparentsinvillages behind Russian lines.Cell phone networks were cut o and highways blocked. Marikahelped locate these children andspoke to their caretakers and

parents every day or the durationo the war and beyond to makesure everyone was sa e, the em-bassy said. Marika then helpedthese parents reunite with theirchildren, whether in Georgia orby acilitating the childs travel.

She got a lot o thank-younotes and phone calls. It wasworth it, she said, being able tohelp people who were dependenton us.

WHA

Lisette Anda, a humanresources assistant at the U.S.Embassy in La Paz, is the FSNo the Year or the Bureau o Western Hemisphere A airs. Shewas cited or decreasing seriousadverse e ects o local govern-ment actions that in uencemorale and personnel actionsin times o political turmoil andcivil unrest in Bolivia.

The government o Boliviasattacks against U.S. interestsresulted in an authorized depar-

ture and the orced permanentdeparture o all 166 Peace Corpsand Drug En orcement Agency employees and amily membersin a ew short months. Accordingto the embassy nominating cable,

Lisette tenaciously processed andtracked both agencies to meet the90-day departure and termina-tion deadlines.

Reductions in sta ollowed.She produced detailed ben-efts briefngs and hal a dozen

workshops on rsum writingand interview skills throughoutthe country or Locally EmployedSta . I was doing my work,she said. I didnt think it was anextraordinary thing. I was justhelping my people. To make theterminations less pain ul, shegave out certifcates o serviceand appreciation. The hardestpart or her was reviewing flesand helping decide whose jobswould be eliminated. Most o them were riends, she said.

She ound employmentopportunities in Iraq or severalLE Sta . Some enjoyed it, butmissed their amilies, shesaid. I heard they were good

employees there; that makes mereally proud.

She showed her mettle againwhen the Bolivian governmentput the embassys narcotics a airssection in a position where itcould not complete its agreement

to provide ood-service handlersor Bolivian military personnelworking in counterdrug logisti-cal support. She helped comeup with a quick reprieve. Sheposted job announcements,reviewed applications, obtainedinterim security clearances andprocessed 44 people in days. Heractions contributed to rapid andcontinued employment o oodservices, thus avoiding anotherpolitical accusation that couldhave escalated, the embassy said.

Lisette is married and has twochildren. n

The author is a writer/editor at

State Magazine.

Documents

State Magazine | FSN Awards (February 2010)