Page 76 - profiles 2019 working copy containing all bios as of Feb 20 final version

messages, Top Secret Cables and e-mails in a timely manner. I also monitor
the network capacity and performance, perform network backup and recovery

procedures for 294 United States Embassies, Consulates, and Diplomatic
Missions across 178 countries. I was detailed as a Non-Professional
Diplomatic Courier in Moscow, Russia; the route included Frankfurt,

Germany, and Helsinki, Finland.

The highlight of my career with the Department of State was in 1988, when I
was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. In May 1988, President Ronald

Reagan made his first trip to Moscow to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev to
begin their fourth summit meeting (1988 Moscow Summit) to sign the historic
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. I was at Red Square when

President Reagan stood with Gorbachev and stated this phrase - “evil empire”
- applied to “another time, another era.” I was on the Support Team for the
Secretary of State George Shultz and the Advance Party for the White House.

I was presented The Extra Mile Award and a cash bonus for communicating
with the Command Center (Watch Officer) at the Department of State on 9/11.
The U.S. Department of State received a flash message for everyone to

evacuate the building. The Watch Officer is located in a Top-Secret vault and
must be manned at all time to respond to U.S. Ambassadors, NATO, military,
world leaders, Foreign Service Officers and Department of State Employees

worldwide. All world news comes through the Command Center. The Watch
Officer is the eyes and ears for the security of our country.

Cheryl Hodge, who departed from us too soon when she transitioned last
year, was a beacon at the Department of State. At the end of her 40-year
career as a Civil Servant at the State Department, Cheryl was the Chief of the

Policy Division in the Office of Performance Evaluation, in the Bureau of
Human Resources. Hosts of United States Ambassadors were mentored under
her leadership. One of her - and our - most significant celebrations was when
General Colin Powell, as United States Secretary of State, presented Cheryl

with the International State Department Award for Civil Rights. Over decades
she had transformed the Foreign Service, encouraging inclusiveness and

diversity among the Diplomatic Corps. We, her colleagues and mentees,
remember her as “someone who dedicated herself to improving the human
resources system at every opportunity, uniting Civil Service and Foreign
Service personnel in immeasurable ways, and touching the lives of all she

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