Stephen Daniels

Felix Hernandez is a retired Foreign Service Officer. He served at the U.S. Mission in West Berlin and at the U.S. Embassies in Berlin, Bonn, and Vienna. He worked on political, economic, and political-military affairs for Australia, Austria, Canada, East Timor, Germany, Indonesia, and Switzerland. He also served as a Legislative Fellow in the office of Senator Chuck Hagel.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Army War College, Felix served as Communications Officer and Damage Control Officer on USS Fletcher (DD-992) and as Main Engines Officer on USS Coral Sea (CV-43). He also served as Operations and Training Officer at Fleet Training Group Western Pacific in Yokosuka, Japan.

After leaving the Navy, Felix studied theology in Rome and worked briefly in Silicon Valley before accepting an appointment to the Foreign Service. After leaving the Department of State, he worked for two years as a program manager for CACI, then two years as headmaster of Chelsea Academy in Front Royal, Virginia, where he had been a member of the Board of Directors for nine years. He was president of the board for four of those years.

Felix is married to Chryss Hernandez, also a retired Foreign Service Officer. They have two sons, born in Berlin and Vienna. Felix and Chryss live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains. They enjoy hiking, travel, The Thirteen, and the antics of their Bombay cat, Louie.

In retirement, Felix is pursuing his new avocation as a forester. He also teaches part-time at the Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Julie is a native of Washington, DC, having been born in George Washington Hospital and growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland.  She graduated from nearby McDaniel College, majoring in History and Political Science.  After college, she needed to see some other parts of the world, so headed to California and Stanford Law School.  After Stanford, she returned to DC where she practiced federal regulatory law for 35 years, taking a mid-career hiatus to follow her husband to a four-year posting in Paris, France, and then spend three years raising her twins, now in their mid-thirties.  

Since retiring from law practice five years ago, Julie has been able to pursue many interests and enjoy her good fortune and relatively good health. She continues to sing with a choir she’s been with for 34 years, and is trying to recoup some of the piano skills she had in her youth.  She fights aging by staying active with swimming, cycling and yoga and by babysitting her two granddaughters, ages 2 years and 5 weeks.  Julie resides in Bethesda with her husband of 40 years, Mark Friedrichs, and their two cats.