WCAPS-GAD FSO 101 Series curated by founding GAD Chair, Maritza T. Adonis, JD is designed to equip aspiring women of color diplomats with the knowledge, tools, and ecosystem requisite for entering into the American Foreign Service.

Join GAD to learn about a day in the life of an Economic and Management FSO, what to consider when selecting these cones in your application, and FSO myths debunked.

This panel features:

• Christina Hardaway, Diplomat

• Erika Lewis, Diplomat

• Acquania Escarne, Diplomat

Moderated by Maritza T. Adonis

SPEAKER BIOS

Diplomat Christina Hardaway

Christina Hardaway has been a member of the U.S. Foreign Service for ten years.  She currently serves as the Deputy Chief of the Political-Economic section at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon.  In this role, she leads the Embassy’s commercial, economic, and environment portfolios. Christina has served in the Bureau of African Affairs as the Cameroon desk officer, acting as a liaison on U.S.-Cameroon bilateral issues.  Prior to that, she worked with the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) as a liaison between the State Department and USADF. She served as Gender, Health & Entrepreneurship officer for the Africa Bureau, coordinating the Bureau’s policy and programs in the areas of gender, health, and entrepreneurship across the State Department and the U.S. interagency.  This included liaising across the U.S. government on programs such as the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), managing the Africa Women, Peace and Security program, and leading communications on the Bureau’s responses to health crises in Africa, such as the Ebola crisis.  Christina also had a special role in integrating gender into broader economic and security policy and programs in Africa. 

Prior to serving in the Africa Bureau, Christina served at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands covering the energy, environment, science, technology, and health portfolio.  Christina led the Embassy’s energy outreach to the Dutch government and Dutch companies, advanced U.S.-Dutch cooperation on climate change and water management, and managed U.S.-Dutch donor coordination on mutual global health and environment programs.Christina’s first Foreign Service assignment was as a consular officer at the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico.  Christina adjudicated U.S. visas for visitors wishing to visit or work in the United States and provided services to U.S. citizens living in Mexico, such as passport services and emergency services. Christina is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and an alumna of Atlanta Public Schools.  Christina holds a Master’s in Public Administration as well as a Master’s in International Relations from Syracuse University.  Christina received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Emory University. Christina is dedicated to community service and is a huge champion of diversity and inclusion initiatives in foreign affairs, serving on the boards of the Pickering and Rangel Fellows Association (PRFA) and Thursday Network-Greater Washington Urban League,  and as a member of the International Career Advancement Program (ICAP) Fellowship Alumni Association.

Diplomat Erika Lewis

Erika Lewis joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in 2009 and  currently serves as the Political/Economic Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Maseru, Lesotho.  Prior to this assignment, she served as an African Union Multilateral Affairs Officer at the State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. and completed a six-month Economic Studies Course and follow-on detail assignments.  Erika's other State Department headquarters assignments include serving as the Iraq Coordinator in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau Office of Assistance Coordination and the Caribbean Coordinator in the Office of Foreign Assistance.  Her overseas assignments include work in the Consular and Political sections at the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and as a Consular Officer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.   

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Erika completed internships at the U.S. Embassies in Quito, Ecuador and Freetown, Sierra Leone; with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in the office of retired Congressman Charles B. Rangel; and at Merrill Lynch & Co.  She graduated with a Master’s in Public Policy Analysis from Pepperdine University and has a Bachelor’s degree in International Business with a concentration in African Studies from Howard University.  Erika is from Chicago, IL, and is married with three children.

Diplomat Acquania Escarne

Acquania Escarne is currently serving in the Office of Allowances as the Deputy of the Section. She joined the Foreign Service in January 2008. Prior to that, she served as an intern in the Democracy Human Rights and Labor Bureau, in the summer of 2005, and as an intern for U.S. Embassy Quito in the summer of 2006. Her first tour was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where she served as a consular officer and assisted in the evacuation of Americans and their family members following the earthquake in 2010. Her second tour was in NEA/SCA/EX as an assignments officer. She staffed NEA and SCA specialist positions and helped with the return of family members and American staff during the Arab Spring when 6 posts were evacuated over a short span of time. Her third tour was at the U.S. Consulate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where she served as the Supervisory GSO from 2012-2015. Her most recent tours have been in Washington, DC in the Bureau of Human Resources, as a recruiter and then the interim Deputy of Outreach and Recruitment, and as the Colombia Desk Officer in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Acquania has a B.A. from The George Washington University and a M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship.