2004 Service To America Medals

The Spirit Of Service

October 1, 2004

Editor at Large

Government work offers challenges and satisfactions not found in the private sector, as thinking people can glean by reading the newspaper every day. Still the stereotype persists: Government workers are uninteresting people performing routine jobs in stultifying bureaucracies.

The fallacy of this stereotype is exposed in the stories of eight people in the pages that follow. They are members of the civil and foreign services of the United States, working in jobs less heralded than those of the military heroes who fight and die for us, but vital to our country nonetheless. Some work alongside the military, in diplomatic, security and intelligence occupations. Others are in law enforcement, consumer protection and scientific research, just a few of the thousands of occupations that showcase the sprawling diversity of the government's employment base.

The eight people profiled here are winners of Service to America Medals conferred jointly by the magazines of Atlantic Media Co. and the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing the federal workforce. The SAM program, now in its third year, aims to interest more Americans to work for Uncle Sam by telling about the careers and achievements of people like this year's winners. This supplement is published in each of our magazines-The Atlantic Monthly, Government Executive and National Journal-reaching more than 500,000 readers directly. Many more people will learn about these stories in local and national news coverage.

Here, at a glance, are the 2004 Service to America Medals winners:

Career Achievement
Prudence Bushnell, a career foreign service officer who was ambassador to Kenya in 1998 when terrorists blew up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, killing more than 200 people. She led the recovery there. A few years earlier, hers was a lonely voice in calling for U.S. action to stem the horrific ethnic genocide in Rwanda.

Federal Employee of the Year
Robert Clifford of the FBI, who headed an investigation in Athens that broke up one of Europe's most notorious and elusive terrorist groups.

Call to Service
Nicole Nelson-Jean, a 28-year-old Tokyo-based Energy Department employee, who led a delegation to the Arctic Circle to convince the Russians that they needed better security for their nuclear materials and weapons.

Homeland Security
Brad Gair of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who oversaw the federal government's recovery efforts in New York in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Justice and Law Enforcement
Peter Darling, a Customs special agent whose work shut down a Chicago-based conspiracy to use infants as cover to smuggle drugs disguised as baby formula into the United States and Europe.

National Security and International Affairs
Stephen Browning of the Army Corps of Engineers, who played an important role in U.S. efforts to help Iraq rebuild electrical infrastructure and established several government ministries.

Science and Environment
Deborah Jin, a physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology who created a form of matter that potentially could unlock the key to superconductivity.

Social Services
Eileen Harrington, whose team at the Federal Trade Commission initiated the federal Do Not Call Registry, blocking unwanted telemarketing calls for millions of Americans.

Timothy B. Clark
Editor, Government Executive