The State Department’s awards are typically announced in fall every year via cable with the big do ceremony held in November. Last year it was held on November 5. Since we only use publicly available material here, we had to wait until this came out in the in-house magazine – three months after the event (we did a post on Special Agent Fred Ketchem: DS Employee of the Year in November last year since the DS Bureau had a press release about his award).
The annual awards recognize outstanding achievements in functional areas such as reporting and analysis, management, linguistic ability, administration, security, consular services, international economics, trade development, peacekeeping, equal employment opportunity and mentoring. The awards were presented by Under Secretary for Political Affairs William Burns.
The Barbara M. Watson Award for Consular Excellence went to Donald Leroy Moore. Moore is the consul general at the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, was cited for exceptional, creative and committed efforts to further U.S. interests in Haiti. His steadfast service to the American community, efforts to provide the best visa service to Haitian visa clients and careful and engaged mentoring of his staff meet the highest standards of consular excellence.
The first Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy went to Elizabeth Rood. Rood, formerly of Provincial Reconstruction Team Paktika, Afghanistan, was cited for her exceptional service to the United States and the people of Afghanistan by helping to extend governance and development to Paktika Province’s most remote and dangerous districts, building the capacity of Paktika’s provincial government and reaching a nationwide audience with positive messages, delivered in Pashto, about the United States.