Former USAID Program Specialist, Gender Equality

May 2025

“It took the rapid and extreme changes of this Administration to appreciate that America was an amazing country to grow up in because we made significant investments in science and health. I had a dream of ending world hunger or eradicating malaria and believed I could pursue that dream as a career. Now a lot of that is being lost. What is so great about America?

I try to be hopeful, but I’m really concerned that there are no longer opportunities for people who want to spend their career genuinely trying to make the world a better place. It took me a long time to land at USAID. I’m very concerned when I imagine a future America where there is not a market for people who want to make the world a better place.

My husband and I had a lot of plans for this year. We’d been saving up to buy a home and were hoping to do that by the end of 2025 and also planning to start a family. I had it all mapped out. My husband is at high risk of being fired as he is also a federal employee. Things are bad, we’re so concerned about the state of the country, that we hardly talk about back when we wanted to start a family. It feels almost “a little bit like a luxury” — like a house and a family is a luxury. We’re in crisis — both me and the country. We need to fight. We can’t sit back and let this happen. We have to speak out and organize.”