Former USAID Social Scientist, Gender Equality

July 2025

“In the initial weeks and months, I was having nightmares. I would be at a protest and be threatened or attacked with police batons or shields. In another dream, I was being escorted out by security because I was being fired.

The mental adjustments and extreme grief of losing my career path, and trying to envision myself somewhere else doing something else, have been really jarring and hard. I worked my entire career to get to USAID. The grief from losing what I saw as a 10-to-15-year path is extraordinary.

I supported the gender integration of all of USAID’s programming, and the implementation of those analyses to make sure there was gender sensitivity in our programming. The benefit to that is that before a program is designed, before we send any money anywhere, before we decide how we are going to approach a problem, we look at, we identify, and we explain any differences that might be exacerbated or worsened. That makes our programs function better. It makes our programs more effective, and it makes sure our programs do no harm — or that we try our best to avoid harm.

The programs that are run from USAID benefit the American people, even though Americans are not the direct recipients of that work. They give a face to who Americans are overseas — one of goodwill. It promotes national security.”