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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Mali Mission Director Honored
Gordon West Retires
NAHFE Honors Gabriel Grau, EGAT Portfolio Manager
Mali Mission Director Honored
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H.E. Toure Lobbo Traore, first lady of Mali (left), presents an award to Pamela White (right) on behalf of the government of Mali.
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Pamela White, USAID's mission director in Mali, was recognized by African women for her leadership role in reducing maternal and infant mortality in the West African country.
White, who has led the mission for two years but has served in Mali since 2001, was given an award from Mali's first lady on behalf of the government. The award was part of the International Day for African Women, whose commemoration July 31 was organized by the Malian Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children, and the Family, and the West Africa Regional Secretariat of Pan-African Women's Organization.
USAID/Mali began a new program last year that aims to reduce under-five mortality, maternal mortality, and high fertility rates.
USAID's $38.5 million program in Mali makes it one of the largest U.S. aid programs in Africa in 2004. White is the first woman director to serve in Mali.
International Day for African Women was established by the United Nations in 1962 to mobilize decisionmakers at all levels to ensure African women's participation and rights in all aspects of social and economic development.
Gordon West Retires
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Gordon West (second from right) on a 1997 field visit in Cambodia.
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Gordon West, retiring in September as deputy assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East, has been a part of history in his 28-year career with USAID.
He led the first U.S. assistance delegation to the Baltics in September 1991, a month after the three former Soviet republics declared independence.
As deputy mission director in the Philippines, he helped open the General Santos airport in Mindanao to counter the island's separation from the rest of the country.
And with USAID health officer Michele Moloney-Kitts and the Royal Cambodian Army, he whisked 800 tourists out of harm's way in July 1997—experiencing the final collapse of the Khmer Rouge firsthand as mission director in Cambodia.
Starting new aid programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan—along with designing aid to restructure Eastern European economies in the early 1990s—were the most challenging tasks he faced, West said.
The former Peace Corps volunteer began his career as a capital projects and private-sector development officer in Bangladesh, Egypt, and Indonesia, before moving to a management position in Pakistan in 1989.
Having started out in Bangladesh in 1976, West returned as mission director in 1998, He found the "plight of the rural poor had improved considerably."
West visited the Iraq mission in July this year and found it "incredible how organized and effective and professional our staff is. It is an amazingly solid mission."
When he retires, West plans to start a second career with a focus on development in Asia.
NAHFE Honors Gabriel Grau, EGAT Portfolio Manager
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Gabriel Grau (left) and NAHFE President Manuel Oliverez (right).
Stavely Lord, USAID
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Gabriel Grau of the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT) was honored by the National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives (NAHFE).
Grau, who is of Colombian origin, received the Foreign Affairs Service Award for "exceptional dedication and performance of his duties" carrying out development credit programs.
Grau helps implement the Development Credit Authority, and serves as the portfolio manager for the Asia and the Near East (ANE) region.
He has been involved in the design and structuring of more than 30 development projects funded by missions across ANE and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dozens of USAID employees, including EGAT Deputy Assistant Administrators Jay Smith and Jacqueline Schafer, attended the NAHFE awards luncheon.
NAHFE was founded in 1994 to promote excellence among Hispanic Americans working in the federal government.
This is the second year that NAHFE has given the Foreign Affairs Recognition Award.
Nominations are made by the agencies; NAHFE selects the awardees.
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