The Available Worldwide podcast tells the stories of the accompanying partners of the US Foreign Service.
Here's who makes it happen!
Dr. Lauren Steed has been exploring what it means to have a portable identity as the spouse of a US diplomat for over 15 years. She’s had embassy EFM jobs, contracting gigs, worked on the local economy, sold handicrafts, taught university courses and secondary school from post, studied for new credentials via the Professional Development Fellowship (PDF), self-published books, spent time in limbo, and generally tried out a little of everything in her search for her portable identity.
Lauren came up with the idea for the Available Worldwide Podcast during a conversation with other EFM business owners. Was there a way to create a global community of EFMs who were working alone or regularly reinventing themselves? Would telling the stories of EFM career journeys inspire and motivate diplomatic partners who were struggling with their own professional identity?
Lauren has found hers in working with EFMs who are taking the next steps in their journeys, hosting Available Worldwide to support adult EFMs and MOHs, and professionally as a college consultant to EFM teens and adults looking for and applying to their best fit post-secondary educational institutions.
She started Nomad Educational Services in 2017, building on her work as a consultant for college prep and executive functioning coaching in Northern Virginia, 20 years of test-prep and university teaching work, and work in publishing and writing coaching to bring her low-stress, no-nonsense approach to the confusion of today’s college admissions process. Lauren is the author of College Conversations: 25 Discussions for High School Juniors and their Families. Her work with the expat and Foreign Service community connects her with some of the most fascinating people in the world.
Stephanie Anderson co-founded the Available Worldwide podcast because she loves hearing and sharing the stories of the amazing accompanying partners of the US Foreign Service.
For seven years, Steph ran a portable online business — Global Nomad English — where she worked as a language and writing coach, editor, and interview prep partner specializing in helping people apply to the Foreign Service.Â
In 2023, she secured a DETO position (domestic employee teleworking overseas) with the Foreign Service Institute. As an LE Staff Training Instructor, she facilitates online and in-person leadership and professional development courses for locally employed staff at US Embassies around the world.Â
Steph and her Diplomatic Technologist spouse have served in Moscow, San Salvador, Berlin, London, and Copenhagen. Steph loves bike touring, yoga, rowing, Nordic noir, and cozy English murder mysteries. She hates green bell peppers and strategic incompetence.