Jennifer Jafari previously served as the Executive Director of FSYF. Her husband joined the Foreign Service in 2008 and they have been posted overseas in Nairobi, Kenya; Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and are currently based in London, United Kingdom. She has worked as a Community Liaison Officer in two previous posts. She has a Masters of Arts in International Development from American University in Washington, D.C. Her two kids have grown up mostly overseas and she is committed to helping them (and other FS kids) navigate the opportunities and challenges of this lifestyle. 

Susan, an alumna of Barnard College and Columbia’s Architecture and Planning School with an MS degree in Historic Preservation, worked for the Historic Kansas City Foundation, and the landmarks and historic preservation commissions of New York City, and her hometown of St. Joseph Missouri, before she and her family began 35 years of service as a diplomatic team in Honduras, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, and more recently in Djibouti, Rwanda and Nigeria, where her husband served as Ambassador.   They have two children, a son, Stuart,  who is a longtime fellow FSYF Board member, and a daughter, Janey, both of whom received FSYF scholarships in recognition of all the amazing work they have done at our missions abroad, just like so many Foreign Service youth living and serving at our diplomatic posts around the world.

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. 

Kim DeBlauw joined the Foreign Service in 1986 and has served in Nuevo Laredo, Lome, Lisbon, Brussels, La Paz, Ankara and Madrid as well as in Washington.  Kim is married to Juan Ramirez; they have three children.  She previously served on the FSYF board and on multiple school boards overseas.  Kim is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. 

Alexandra is a program officer in the Office of Europe and Asia Programs in the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).  She is a former TCK, FSYF participant, and the daughter of a retired Foreign Agricultural Officer. Alexandra was born in London. She has attended international schools in Tunis, Lagos, New Delhi, and Cairo. She has a B.A. in International Relations from the College of William and Mary and is a Public Policy Masters candidate at Georgetown University. She also attended the Institut Politque d'Etudes in Lyon from 2006-2007.

Pete graduated from Arizona State University (Mathematics) and also has a masters degrees from Syracuse Univ. in Public Administration and from the National Defense University in Management. He was a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer, a high school teacher, coach of various sports and scout leader before joining the Department of State.  He recently retired from the Senior Foreign Service after a 38-year career that took his family and him to Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Ethiopia, Mali, Honduras and Mexico. Pete is the proud father of two global nomads.  He served on several school boards while stationed overseas.  He has been a FSYF board member since 2002 and served as the fund-raising chair during a period that saw the organization triple its annual budget and expand its programs. 

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Stuart grew up as the son of a Foreign Service Officer in Honduras, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, and Niger, West Africa. In college, Stuart studied abroad at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan and worked at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. He was also awarded grants to increase access to markets for women's cooperatives and build wells in rural Djibouti. Stuart was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received a BA in East Asian Studies, magna cum laude, from Yale University. He worked for the Rwandan Government's Development Board to market investment opportunities in Kigali, Rwanda while conducting research on the post-genocide legal system. He was an active member of the FSYF in high school and a recipient of the FSYF Award from former Secretary Colin Powell for his work in Niger. Currently, he runs online marketing and revenue strategy for SpanishDict.com, a company that teaches over 50 million annual visitors Spanish and English online for free.

  

Jacob Barr

Board Member

Jacob is a Diplomatic Technology Officer with the Department of State and volunteers with FSYF as a website administrator. He is married with three children and understands the challenges living overseas can pose for families. He has a background in data analytics, government and academia and has been living overseas since 2004. Jacob is a strong advocate of international education, language learning and community development.

                           Bridget Premont

Board Member

Bridget is a Foreign Service Officer assigned to the Institute of the Americas at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, CA.  She is married and is the mom of two wonderful teenagers who, together, have attended 16 schools.  Over the last 22 years she has served in Bangui as Deputy Chief of Mission, and with her family in Nassau, Tijuana, Ottawa, Brussels, Quito, Nicosia, and Port-au-Prince.  In Washington, Bridget worked in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and in the Executive Secretariat’s Operations Center. A native of California and Idaho, she studied at Georgetown (M.S.F.S.) and Gonzaga Universities (B.A.) and speaks French, Spanish, and some Haitian Creole.

Krystal McGuiness

Board Member

Krystal is a career Air Force Logistics Readiness Officer and current National Defense Fellow at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. She is a parent to an amazing toddler and partner to a Foreign Service Officer, currently serving in Seoul, South Korea. Prior to her current position, Krystal served as a Pentagon Speechwriter. She has experience teaching composition, rhetoric, and literature at the United States Air Force Academy alongside a range of Air Force assignments in logistics and air mobility operations in Arizona, Colorado, Virginia, and Okinawa, Japan. She is looking forward to her upcoming assignment in South Korea and opportunities to engage with our incredible Foreign Service kids.

Abigail Wollam

Board Member

Abigail is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab based in Washington, DC where she assists in the coordination of external engagements, trainings, and other events. Abigail has a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from St. Olaf College. As an undergraduate, Abigail worked with the US Department of State in the US embassy in Accra, Ghana; with the Smithsonian Office of Fellowships and Internships; as an admissions assistant and archives researcher at St. Olaf College; as a campaign intern during the 2020 primaries; and as an archaeological intern. In her spare time, she volunteers with the National Museum of American History, rock climbs and reads a lot.

Holly Higgins

Board Member

Senior Foreign Service Officer (active duty)