The Foreign Service Youth Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors. By mandate, at least two-thirds of the members of the Board have worked for or been associated with U.S. diplomatic missions abroad. To the extent possible, the Board has a balanced representation of different groups, organizations and governmental offices concerned with issues relating to Foreign Service youth. At least one member of the Board is a young adult who grew up in the Foreign Service. All members of the Board are volunteers who serve two-year terms and do not receive compensation from FSYF.
How to Join the
Board
Any employee or family member who has served under chief of
mission authority and/or has a connection to the Foreign
Affairs community by employment, marriage or upbringing is
eligible to be nominated for the Board of Directors. Ideal
candidates are committed to the mission of FSYF and to
Foreign Service families and young people, are able to work
collaboratively as members of a team, and have adequate time
to contribute to FYSF. First priority shall be given to
individuals representing groups that directly or indirectly
deal with Foreign Service youth issues as well as
organizations or offices not currently represented on the
Board.
To read the job description,
click here.
To complete a nomination form,
click here.
Linda Garvelink,
President
Kristin Grasso, Vice President
Kristin is a TCK (third-culture kid)
whose father served as a Foreign Service Officer for the
Department of State. Kristin grew up in the Dominican
Republic, Colombia, Russia and Mexico. She is the mother of
three daughters—one attending the University of Virginia and
two in high school. Kristin graduated from the University of
Virginia with a degree in Foreign Affairs (and quite often
finds herself wishing she majored in child psychology). She
has been a stay-at-home mother and currently works at the
Department of State in the Office of Overseas Schools.
Blanca Ruebensaal, Secretary
Tim Sears, Treasurer
A twenty-eight year veteran of the Foreign Service, Tim is
married and the father of three school-aged children. He has
served in Islamabad, Lome, Belize, Asuncion and La Paz as
well as Washington. Tim is currently
a
Financial Management Officer in the Bureau of
International narcotics and law Enforcement Affairs.
Pete Wood, Chair Fundraising Committee
Pete Wood is a board member and chair of fund-raising. He is
a former Peace Corps volunteer who joined the Foreign
Service in 1974. He and his former wife (also a former FSO)
raised two TCKs overseas in Africa and Latin America. His
daughter, Alyson, was active in FSYF during high school and
also served as program director for the middle-school group
of FSYFers. Pete retired from the Senior Foreign Service in
2006, but has continued to work full time for The
Department. He is currently the Area Management Officer for
Pakistan, Egypt and Algeria in the Overseas Buildings
Office. Pete holds two masters degrees in management as
follows: MA in Mgmt. in International Development from the
Maxwell School, Syracuse University; MA in National
Resources Mgmt. from the National War University, Ft.
McNair, Washington, DC.
Xenia Wilkinson, Chair Nominating Committee
Xenia Wilkinson is a retired Foreign Service
officer. She served in Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, and the
U.S. Missions to the United Nations and the Organization of
American States. Her daughter Julia, and stepchildren T,
Rebecca, and Jennifer grew up in the foreign service. Xenia
earned a PhD. In Latin American history at Georgetown
Unviersity in 2010. She has taught history at
Georgetown University and the University of Mary Washington.
Xenia is married to Ted Wilkinson, also a retired FSO, who served as AFSA president (1989-1991) and has remained active in the organization.
Nadia Tongour, Chair Events Committee
After a 27-year career as an FSO, Nadia retired last year to
pursue some of her other and earlier interests—in education
and travel – both teaching part-time and taking courses in
the field of "travel and tourism.” Her Foreign Service tours
were divided between overseas assignments in Latin American
and the Caribbean (notably Brazil, Mexico, Barbados and
Grenada) and Washington postings that focused on the former
Soviet Union and Europe. She has one son, a high school
senior, who accompanied her on many of her tours.
Dale Dean, Chair Scholarship Committee
Dale Dean was a political officer and Arabist who
served the first half of his Foreign Service career in the
Arab World (Cairo, Kuwait, Jeddah and Riyadh) and was later
the West Bank/Gaza desk officer in the Office of Israel
Affairs. Other assignments were in the Africa Bureau (East
African Affairs--Somalia Desk), in the PM Bureau as Deputy
Director of the Office of International Security Operations,
and later in EUR as Deputy Director for Strategy and
Security, Office of European Security and Political Affairs.
His last oversees post was in the Political Section of
Embassy Ankara. After retirement in 1999, Dale earned a
Master of Arts in Arab Studies from Georgetown University.
Dale was married to the late Michael Ann Hughes Dean,
who had been an FSYF Board member, the CLO in Riyadh and
Ankara, and the Publications Coordinator for the Family
Liaison Office. Their children, Cat and Phil, spent much of
their childhood in the Arab World. Cat served for a time as
a youth representative on the FSYF Board.
Veronique Anderson
Veronique Anderson is the daughter of a Foreign Service
officer and grew up overseas in Tel Aviv, Warsaw, and Seoul.
She has worked as a member of the Employment Team in the
Family Liaison Office (FLO) since April 2007. Prior to
working in FLO, Veronique lived in London where she worked
at an independent secondary school while completing
management studies. She received her BA in Government from
the College of William and Mary.
Alyson Rose-Wood
Alyson is a TCK (third-culture kid)
whose parents both served as Foreign Service Officers for
the Department of State. Alyson grew up in Botswana,
Ethiopia, Mali and Honduras. She graduated from the Harvard
School of Public Health with a Master of Science degree in
Global Health and Population and a concentration in
Epidemiology of Infectious Disease (with a focus on malaria
and all things mosquito). Alyson credits her interest in
public health to her peripatetic upbringing and by her
tenure as a water and sanitation Peace Corps Volunteer in
Morocco. In addition to Peace Corps, Alyson has worked at
CDC on lead poisoning prevention, investigated urban malaria
at the Malaria Research and Training Center at the
University of Bamako in Mali, interned at USAID with the
President’s Malaria Initiative, worked at HHS on the Haiti
health recovery effort following the earthquake, and worked
as an international white water raft guide in Ethiopia.
Alyson is currently a 2009-2011 Presidential Management
Fellow with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Maryland. She is excited to be on the Board of Directors of
FSYF having a long history with FSYF. Alyson worked as the
GlobeTrotter's Program Director from 2006-2007 and was a
high school member of AWAL. Recognizing the important role
AWAL could play with helping fellow students at Yorktown
High School in Arlington, Virginia (including refugee,
military, and missionary kids), Alyson founded the first
high school-based AWAL program in the country at Yorktown
High School in 1998.
Shirley McGee
Shirley J. McGee is a Human
Resources Specialist and Consular Associate with broad-based
international experience. She has extensive expertise
in writing job descriptions and in negotiating
classification standards. Her performance earned her
two Department of State Superior Honor Awards and several
Meritorious Honor Awards.
Shirley is a graduate of Indiana
University with a BA in physical education. She taught
and coached in East Chicago, Indiana, and in several
American International Overseas schools over the past 30
years. She was the Ambassador’s representative on the
American School of Madagascar’s school board and tutored
students in math. Shirley lived in 11 foreign
countries holding a variety of increasingly complex
government positions. She coordinated and developed
community outreach programs in support of US Government
policy in four African postings.
Shirley volunteered her services
successfully to raise funds in support of Pediatric Aids and
Komen for the Cure. She worked with local charity
organizations in Swaziland and Zimbabwe to provide
scholarships for aids orphans. Shirley is married to
Ambassador James D. McGee (Ret) and lives in Bradenton,
Florida.
Jim McGrath
Jim was a Foreign Service Youth
as he and his family accompanied his father, a Foreign
Service Officer now retired from the Central Intelligence
Agency, on many tours overseas. Jim, and his brother
Tim, own and operate McGrath Real Estate Services in
Northern Virginia. The McGrath’s understand the unique
challenges associated with owning and managing real estate
while balancing work that requires international travel.
They started their company to assist others with the
process. Since 1985 Jim has been the Principal Broker
and President of McGrath Real Estate Service, Inc. He is a
member of Northern Virginia Association of Realtors
(“NVAR”), a Lifetime Member NVAR Top Producer Club, a
Lifetime Member NVAR Multi-Million Dollar Sales Club.
Jim is a past Chairman of the Property Management and
Leasing Committee at NVAR, a past Delegate to the Virginia
Association of Realtors as well as a member of the National
Association of Property Managers (NARPM). Jim has a
BS in Business Administration from George Mason University.
Jim is also a recent Board of Director of the Southwestern
Youth Association Little League Baseball Board and remains
active in youth sports through coaching and is a member of
the Positive Coaches Alliance. McGrath Real Estate Services
is proud to Sponsor the FSYF Essay Contest.
Erik Sundquist
A
child of Arlington and graduate of Washington-Lee, Erik
studied German literature at Harvard,
completed a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature at Columbia,
and taught English at colleges in New
York,
Saudi Arabia,
Morocco and the DC area
before and after becoming a Foreign Service spouse
and accompanying his wife, Alix, during her 20-year
career and four overseas postings. Besides
teaching, Erik was active in commissary and employee
associations abroad and in the wine business at home. Now
in the 12 years since his wife's retirement, he
has struggled to achieve a balance between duty,
as full-time associate broker with Peake Management, and far
too many passions--European languages, opera, classical and
renaissance literature, Arabic, wine, and French cooking.
Erik and Alix have one daughter, Karin Alexandra, born in Paris in
1984 and enriched by sojourns in Bordeaux and Rabat.
Vincent Baxter
Vincent Baxter is the Principal of Thomas
Jefferson Elementary School, Doctoral Candidate in
Educational Administration and Policy Studies at The George
Washington University, husband to Gina, and dad to Stuart
and Peter.
Research interests include: the preparation of school leaders, communitarianism, and phenomenology.
Ambassador Ruth Davis
Retired Foreign Service, Former
FSYF Board
Ambassador John Lange
Retired Foreign Service, Former FSYF Board
Director of Student Psychological Services, Johannesburg
Mette Beecroft
President Emerita of AAFSW
Kay Branaman Eakin
President Emerita
Rebecca Grappo
Founder of RNG International Educational Consultants, Former FLO Education and Youth Officer
Ray Leki
Director of Foreign Service Institute Transition Center
Dr. Keith Miller
Director of Dept. of State Office of Overseas Schools
John Naland
Former President of AFSA
Robin Pascoe
Author, President of Expatriate Press Limited, Former Canadian Foreign Service spouse
Leslie Teixiera
Director of Dept. of State Family Liaison Office (FLO)
Congressman Chris Van Hollen
Former Foreign Service Youth
