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Acknowlagements are given to friends and family members of the ten employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) awaiting to be sworn in as Foreign Service Officers during a ceremony at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. The new officers will begin their Foreign Service careers working as agricultural attachés at U.S. embassies in nine countries. “Our attaché corps serves as the eyes, ears and voice for U.S. agriculture around the globe, monitoring and reporting on agricultural trade matters, identifying export opportunities, facilitating trade, working to enhance food security, and supporting U.S. foreign policy objectives,” said FAS Administrator Phil Karsting. “These newly minted Foreign Service Officers have already shown they have the talent and determination to successfully carry out the FAS mission of ‘linking U.S. agriculture to the world.’ I look forward to seeing the great things they will achieve in their Foreign Service careers.” The 10 new attachés are among approximately 140 FAS Foreign Service Officers who are posted to 93 offices at U.S. diplomatic missions around the world, covering 171 countries. The new FAS Foreign Service officers are: Sean Cox, from Excelsior, Minn., assigned to the FAS Office of Agricultural Affairs (OAA) in Guatemala City, Guatemala; Amanda Hinkle, from Orchard Park, N.Y., assigned to the OAA in Seoul, South Korea; Abraham Inouye, from Costa Mesa, Calif., assigned to the OAA in Beijing, China; Gene Kim, from Duluth, Ga., assigned to the OAA in Beijing, China; Kirsten Luxbacher, from Pittsburgh, Pa., assigned to the OAA in Lima, Peru; Neil Mikulski, from Philadelphia, Pa., assigned to the OAA in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Mary Rose Parrish, from Raleigh, N.C., assigned to the OAA in Mexico City, Mexico; Ben Rau, from Rochester, Minn., assigned to the OAA in Bogota, Colombia; Mark Wallace, from Warsaw, Ind., assigned to the OAA in New Delhi, India; and Paul Welcher, from Arnold, Md., assigned to the OAA in Bangkok, Thailand.

More information about FAS and its work to advance U.S. agricultural interests around the globe is available at www.fas.usda.gov.