Patricia Scroggs to Receive AFSA’s 2024 Foreign Service Champions Award

The American Foreign Service Association is honored to announce the 2024 recipient of AFSA's Foreign Service Champions Award: Patricia Hanigan Scroggs, the recently retired Director of Diplomatic Fellowships at Howard University.

This award honors individuals or organizations who have made significant contributions to diplomacy and the Foreign Service. AFSA established this award in 2021 to bring greater recognition to those who have demonstrably championed the Foreign Service’s critical role in U.S. foreign policy and have had an enduring and positive impact on the institution of the Foreign Service and the diplomatic profession.

Following an impressive 20-year Foreign Service career, Patricia Scroggs joined Howard University in 2006 to assume leadership of the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, a State Department program that enhances the excellence and diversity of the Foreign Service. As Director of Diplomatic Fellowships at Howard University, she worked closely with the State Department to expand the Rangel Program and implement the State Department’s Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship program beginning in 2018. One out of nine current State Department Foreign Service Officers has come through one of these programs. Ms. Scroggs also helped create and implement USAID’s Donald M. Payne International Development Fellowship Program, the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Foreign Service Fellowship Program, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service International Agricultural Fellowship Program, and the DEIA Champions Sponsorship Program for mid-career and senior State Department Foreign Service Officers.

Ms. Scroggs’ successful leadership and management of these initiatives has been instrumental in ensuring that the State Department attracts outstanding talent to enrich its Foreign Service and U.S. foreign policy through enhanced representation of the diversity that is the strength of our nation.

A retired Foreign Service Officer who joined the State Department in 1986, Ms. Scroggs held various assignments throughout her career. In Washington, she was the Director of the East Asia and Pacific Bureau’s Office of Regional and Security Policy; Chief of the Asia, Near East and Africa Division in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Office of Bilateral Trade; Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and an Economic Officer and a Science, Technology and Environment Officer in the Office of Japanese Affairs. Her overseas posts included Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and Mazatlán, Mexico. She received AFSA’s 1990 W. Averell Harriman Award, Superior Honor Awards, and the Una Chapman Cox Sabbatical Leave Fellowship.

Ms. Scroggs leaves a legacy of mentorship and advocacy. With a strong commitment to public service and a distinguished career dedicated to building a more inclusive and representative foreign affairs community, she is highly deserving of AFSA’s Foreign Service Champions Award.