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.
Kristin Grasso, Interim President and 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 part-time at the
Department of State in the Office of Overseas Schools.
Tim Sears, Treasurer
A twenty-five 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 Senior Course Manager
for Financial Management training at the Foreign Service
Institute.
Nadia Tongour, Secretary
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.
Ambassador John Lange
Ambassador John E. Lange retired from the Foreign Service in
February 2009 and currently works for the Global Health
Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to
retirement, John served in the U.S. Department of State as
the Special Representative on Avian and Pandemic Influenza,
Deputy Inspector General, Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator,
and Associate Dean for Leadership and Management at the
Foreign Service Institute. Earlier, he served as U.S.
Ambassador to Botswana. As Charge d'Affaires, he led the
American Embassy in Dar es Salaam at the time of the
terrorist bombing on August 7, 1998. He and his wife have
one daughter, who grew up in Togo, Switzerland, Tanzania,
Botswana, and Northern Virginia and who received the FSYF's
Una Chapman Cox Award for Domestic Community Service in
2005.
Pete Wood
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, Wash, DC.
Karen d’Aboville
Karen d'Aboville is a Foreign Service Officer with USAID.
Ms. d'Aboville has a J.D. degree from Columbia University
School of Law and an M.B.A. from INSEAD in France. An
attorney with over 25 years of varied international
experience, she is currently working in USAID's General
Counsel's Africa Bureau group. Her last post was in Kenya.
Ms. d'Aboville has a French husband and two children (a
senior and eighth-grader) who each have attended 7 schools
on 3 different continents. Her current "hobby" is to help
her son choose a university and to fill out university
applications.
Xenia Wilkinson
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 step-children T, Rebecca, and
Jennifer grew up in the foreign service. Xenia currently
works as a consultant for a humanitarian NGO and is
completing her PhD in Latin American history at Georgetown
University.
Lindsey Peake
Lindsey Peake was raised in a Foreign Service family and had
the luxury of spending most of her childhood in Europe.
After the shock of re-entering an American high school in
the 11th grade, Lindsey quickly acclimated, finished college
at Randolph-Macon, got married, and moved to Jacksonville,
Florida to have a couple of great sons. In about 1989, she
decided that the family should move back to the Northern
Virginia area. By that time, her father had retired from the
government and her mother was running her own property
management company.
Being a Foreign Service family, of course they all love to
travel, so her mother decided she would retire from the
property management business to travel extensively. Lindsey
was ready to take over. Twenty years later, Lindsey still
continues doing property management with ongoing strong ties
to the Foreign Service community. A majority of her clients
are in the Foreign Service. As a FS youth herself, she
understands some of the challenges that young people face
and fully supports anything that can help make the
transitions easier – hence her involvement in FSYF.
Joseph Van Meter
Joseph Van Meter is a board member of FSYF and a Foreign
Service Officer in the Program Office backstop of USAID.
Currently on assignment in the Office of Human Resources,
Training and Education Division, he oversees worldwide core
training for all staff members. His two children, a son in
the 8th grade and a daughter in 10th grade, were very active
members of FSYF for three years as they transitioned to life
in the U.S. after living in Egypt, Senegal , Guinea , and
Malawi . As his daughter stated, “FSYF Rocks!” Joseph’s
wife, Martine, is a pre-school and elementary teacher. The
family lives in Oak Hill, Virginia.
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.
Dale Dean
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.
Saara Ylitalo
Saara Ylitalo grew up in the Foreign Service and then
married a Foreign Service Officer. They lived in Costa Rica,
Japan, Peru and South Africa. She is a professional artist
and is part of a studio in the Torpedo Factory in
Alexandria, Virginia. She has three children, one of whom,
Vanessa, is the FSYF Globetrotters Program Director. Her son
goes to VCU and her other daughter is at the University of
Hawaii pursuing a PHD.
Ambassador Ruth Davis
Career Ambassador Ruth A. Davis served as Special Advisor
and Chief of Staff in the Africa Bureau, after completing an
assignment as Distinguished Advisor for International
Affairs at Howard University in Washington (July, 2003 to
Sept., 2005). She served as Director General of the Foreign
Service and Director of Human Resources from June 1, 2001 to
June 30, 2003.
Before assuming the position of Director General, Ambassador
Davis was Director of the Foreign Service Institute from
July 1977 to June 2001. Prior to this assignment, she was
the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular
Affairs (December 1995 – July 1997). Previous to joining the
Bureau of Consular Affairs, she was Ambassador to the
Republic of Benin (December 1992 – November 1995). Following
her assignment as Consul General in Barcelona, Spain,
(1987-1991), Ambassador Davis was a member of the 34th Class
of the Senior Seminar (1991-1992) which was the highest
level of executive training offered by the US Government.
Ambassador Davis joined the Foreign Service in 1969 and was
assigned as Consular Officer in Kinshasa, Zaire (1969-1971).
Specializing in consular affairs, she also served in
Nairobi, Kenya (1971-1973), Tokyo, Japan (1973-1976) and
Naples, Italy (1976-1980). She returned to the United States
as a Pearson Fellow working as Special Advisor for
International Affairs for the Washington, DC Municipal
Government. While advising the DC Government, she directed
the City’s Sister City Program and its International Task
Force. She was credited with substantially improving the
city’s involvement in the international, economic, cultural,
and diplomatic arenas.
Ambassador Davis’ previous assignments in the Department of
State include Senior Watch Officer in the Operations Center
(1982-1984) and Chief of Training and Liaison in the Bureau
of Personnel.
Born May 28, 1943 in Phoenix, Arizona, Ambassador Davis
received her Bachelor’s Degree Magna Cum Laude (Sociology)
in 1966 from Spelman College in Atlanta. While enrolled in
Spelman, she spent 15 months as a Merrill Scholar studying
and traveling in Europe and the Middle East. She earned a
Master’s degree from the School of Social Work, University
of California at Berkeley. Before joining the Foreign
Service, Ambassador served as an intern in the Population
Division of the Agency for International Development and as
a research assistant at the University of California at
Berkeley.
Ambassador Davis is credited with playing a significant role
in the organization of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games and
in Atlanta’s successful bid for those of 1996. She drafted a
study entitled “Transferring Knowledge and Experience from
the Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee to the Atlanta
Committee for the Olympic Games.” She speaks French and
Spanish, and is an avid opera fan.
Former President Clinton approved the Department’s
nomination of Ambassador Davis for a Presidential
Distinguished Service Award in September 1999 and President
Bush did the same in 2002. She was the 1999 winner of the
State Department’s Arnold L. Raphel Memorial Award for
mentoring and developing the people around her, especially
junior officers She was also the recipient of the Department
of State’s Superior Honor Award, and was granted an Honorary
Doctor of Laws Degree by her alma mater, Spelman College in
1998 and an Honorary Doctor of laws Degree by Middlebury
College in 2000. In June 2003, she was awarded The
Secretary’s Distinguished Award by Secretary Colin Powell
and she was the 2005 winner of the Department of State’s
Equal Employment Opportunity Award.
Ambassador Davis is the former President of the Thursday
Luncheon Group, a foreign policy group which monitors the
recruitment, assignments, employment practices, promotion
patterns, training and other personnel matters of vital
interest to minorities in the principal foreign affairs
agencies.
Ambassador Davis is single and her only sister, Dr. Eugenia
Davis Clements, is a physician living with her family in Los
Angeles, California.
Advisory Council
Faye G. Barnes
President of AAFSW, Former Director of Dept. of State Family
Liaison Office (FLO)
Vincent Baxter
Principal of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Falls
Church, Virginia
Dr. Robert Beck
Director of Student Psychological Services, Johannesburg
Mette Beecroft
President Emerita of AAFSW
Kay Branaman Eakin
President Emerita
Emily Gildersleeve
Program Manager at Full Circle International Relocations
Rebecca Grappo
Founder of RNG International Educational Consultants, Former
FLO Education and Youth Officer
Ray Leki
Director of Foreign Service Institute Transition Center
John Mamone
Former Executive Director of AFSA
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
