Kaara, Management Officer
My name is Kaara and I've been a management officer at State Department for over 25 years. I'd be hard pressed to pick, out of my 25 years, one day that was the best day.
I've had a very odd career path for a management officer because I speak Russian rather well. I--out of my 25 years, 14 years have been spent in Russia or the Soviet Union. I was there when Chernobyl blew, and we didn't know if we were going to have to get everyone out of post, women of childbearing age and children. I was there when we lost the local employees. I was there when the Iron Curtain came down and we started being able to hire Soviet citizens again and the Soviet Union broke up into 14 or 15 independent states.
One of the best things I like about management work is, we are the platform. Nothing happens on the policy side unless management officers get the buildings out there, hire the people, make sure you get the right people for the ambassador, make sure that you're getting everyone paid and that you're getting them paid as well as they can be paid.
The Foreign Service matters to the American public because we are the peaceful arm of making sure our relationships with other countries are amicable …and that we protect American citizens, we protect American interests overseas. And we can't do any of that, we can't protect American citizens and we can't protect our interests unless we have that diplomatic platform, and a management officer is what ensures the ambassador that we have that platform.