Advancement
Alumni
Alumni Profiles
Jean Akers, Class of 1992
Alumni Achievement
Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State
Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State
Jean Akers is a consular-coned Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State. Her most recent position was in Washington, D.C. as the Director of the Post Analysis and Support Division in the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Office of the Executive Director, where she led a team of 30 Foreign and Civil Service employees in providing policy and resource guidance to 230 consular teams around the globe – all of whom are charged with protecting the lives and interests of U.S. citizens abroad, providing routine citizenship services, and upholding national security while facilitating travel to the United States by issuing visas to qualified visitors, workers, and immigrants.
Jean joined the Foreign Service in 2004. Upon entry, she was initially directed to an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but in a classic example of the need for adaptability in the Foreign Service, Jean’s assignment changed, and she was sent to the U.S. Consulate General in Curacao. From 2004-2006, Jean was the sole consular officer responsible for providing routine and emergency services to the nearly 2 million U.S. citizens who traveled to the six islands of the Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba) each year. Additionally, as post’s General Services Officer Jean oversaw all contracting, warehouse and motorpool operations, customs and shipping, and housing.
Jean’s next assignment was as consular officer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she provided the full range of visa and U.S. citizens services. Following her tour in Phnom Penh, Jean returned to Washington from 2009-2011 to serve as a Career Development Officer in the Bureau of Global Talent Management, where she counseled and assigned new FSOs to their first and second tours.
In 2011, Jean volunteered for a one year assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan as the deputy consular section chief providing services to U.S. citizens and foreign national visa applicants in an active war zone. She led her team’s response to multiple crises, including a day-long siege against the Embassy during which the consular waiting room took a direct hit from an RPG.
Upon returning to Washington in 2012, the Bureau of Consular Affairs asked Jean to help build a new team focused on bureau-wide innovation, leadership, and management excellence, eventually called “1CA.” Jean served as 1CA’s inaugural communications and training coordinator, training more than 3,000 Department professionals in techniques designed to enhance collaboration, operational effectiveness, and efficiency.
In 2014, Jean was selected for service at the Department's training center, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). She was charged with overseeing the flagship Basic Consular Course which provides training to hundreds of entry-level Foreign Service Officers each year prior to their initial consular assignment. Jean returned to Bureau of Consular Affairs’ headquarters in 2016 to manage consular staffing and assignments, working with her team to ensure consular sections worldwide had the human resources they needed to effectively carry out their mission.
From there, Jean went to FSI as a student – to polish off the fair-to-middling French she learned at Casady – as preparation for her 2019 assignment as Consular Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal, Canada. Jean’s tenure in Montreal was marked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unprecedented closure of the U.S.-Canada border, and a complete reimagining of how to perform consular services amid a global pandemic.
In August 2021, Jean flew into Kabul, Afghanistan, where for 12 days and nights she led a team of consular officers at the airport while working with the U.S. military, fellow diplomats, and other allied partners to facilitate the largest evacuation in U.S. history, with over 120,000 U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans airlifted to safety. Jean described this experience in the March 2022 edition of the Foreign Service Journal, and it remains one of the most consequential events of her life.
Jean’s next assignment was as consular officer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she provided the full range of visa and U.S. citizens services. Following her tour in Phnom Penh, Jean returned to Washington from 2009-2011 to serve as a Career Development Officer in the Bureau of Global Talent Management, where she counseled and assigned new FSOs to their first and second tours.
In 2011, Jean volunteered for a one year assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan as the deputy consular section chief providing services to U.S. citizens and foreign national visa applicants in an active war zone. She led her team’s response to multiple crises, including a day-long siege against the Embassy during which the consular waiting room took a direct hit from an RPG.
Upon returning to Washington in 2012, the Bureau of Consular Affairs asked Jean to help build a new team focused on bureau-wide innovation, leadership, and management excellence, eventually called “1CA.” Jean served as 1CA’s inaugural communications and training coordinator, training more than 3,000 Department professionals in techniques designed to enhance collaboration, operational effectiveness, and efficiency.
In 2014, Jean was selected for service at the Department's training center, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). She was charged with overseeing the flagship Basic Consular Course which provides training to hundreds of entry-level Foreign Service Officers each year prior to their initial consular assignment. Jean returned to Bureau of Consular Affairs’ headquarters in 2016 to manage consular staffing and assignments, working with her team to ensure consular sections worldwide had the human resources they needed to effectively carry out their mission.
From there, Jean went to FSI as a student – to polish off the fair-to-middling French she learned at Casady – as preparation for her 2019 assignment as Consular Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal, Canada. Jean’s tenure in Montreal was marked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unprecedented closure of the U.S.-Canada border, and a complete reimagining of how to perform consular services amid a global pandemic.
In August 2021, Jean flew into Kabul, Afghanistan, where for 12 days and nights she led a team of consular officers at the airport while working with the U.S. military, fellow diplomats, and other allied partners to facilitate the largest evacuation in U.S. history, with over 120,000 U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans airlifted to safety. Jean described this experience in the March 2022 edition of the Foreign Service Journal, and it remains one of the most consequential events of her life.
Jean has been recognized for excellence throughout her career, within the Department and beyond. In 2022, the Secretary of State awarded Jean and her fellow consular officers the Department’s Award for Heroism for their service during the Afghanistan evacuation. In 2015 Jean received Chief Learning Officer’s Innovation Award for her work at FSI leading the redesign of the Basic Consular Course. She is the recipient of numerous Superior Honor Awards, as well as recognition from colleagues in other agencies. She speaks French, Khmer, and Dutch.
After graduating from Casady in 1992, Jean worked in the restaurant business in Oklahoma City for three years before attending college at the State University of New York (SUNY) in New Paltz, NY. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in History, Jean moved to The Netherlands, where she earned her Master’s in International Relations from the Universiteit van Amsterdam just months before joining the Foreign Service.
Jean is grateful for the love and support of her mother Barbara, her brother Danny and his husband Jerry, the entire Akers family, and many wonderful friends around the world.
After graduating from Casady in 1992, Jean worked in the restaurant business in Oklahoma City for three years before attending college at the State University of New York (SUNY) in New Paltz, NY. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in History, Jean moved to The Netherlands, where she earned her Master’s in International Relations from the Universiteit van Amsterdam just months before joining the Foreign Service.
Jean is grateful for the love and support of her mother Barbara, her brother Danny and his husband Jerry, the entire Akers family, and many wonderful friends around the world.
Casady School is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, Episcopal day school serving students in pre-k-12. Educating Mind, Body, and Spirit.
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Casady School is a PreK-12, independent, college preparatory Episcopal day school committed to deeper-level learning. Casady School welcomes a student body that reflects the diversity of the world around us and therefore does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered programs generally accorded or made available to students at the School.