Global Development Interrupted Podcast

When Jen Erie published her memoir, she expected her global development colleagues to connect with it. She didn’t expect older white men to message her saying they saw their own lives in hers. Jen Erie grew up the daughter of Haitian immigrants in Queens, New York. She went on to spend more than a decade as a USAID Foreign Service Officer — leading health programs across the Philippines, South Afr...

A scholarship program training the next generation of democratic leaders was named “Diversity and Inclusion” specifically to hide it from a military dictatorship. On day nine of the Trump presidency, that name got it canceled. Matt Pietz spent a decade in Myanmar for USAID working on democracy and education projects. His last project gave 450 of the country’s most promising young people four-year...

Keisha Effiom sat at her dining room table in Rwanda, read the email about USAID’s final mission, and started writing. The result is a memoir — and this conversation. Keisha, former USAID Mission Director for Rwanda and Burundi, joins Global Development Interrupted to trace her journey from Howard University graduate to one of USAID’s top leaders and what she chose to do when it all came crashing...

Three former USAID officers. Three Maryland races. One mission: keep serving. In this episode of Global Development Interrupted, host Leah Petit sits down with Alicia Contreras-Donello, running for Maryland House of Delegates District 14; Allison Eriksen, running for Montgomery County Council District 3; and Tracy Starr, running for US House of Representatives District 5. Together they share their...

A career spent investing in global education didn’t just build schools. It built futures. In this episode, former USAID Foreign Service Officer and Education Specialist Siena Fleischer shares what it takes to create opportunity through education: from teaching children to read, preparing youth for the workforce, and building global research partnerships. But this isn’t just about what worked. It’s...

What do malaria rates, indigenous forests in Peru, and elephant tusk trafficking have in common? They’re all part of what USAID’s conservation work actually looked like. And what we’ve lost. Cynthia Gill spent 32 years building USAID’s conservation programming. Weeks watching it dismantled. And then the question: now what? The former Director for USAID's Center for Natural Environment joins Leah t...

What does it feel like to edit the word "equality" out of a US government document? To watch global development programs you believed in disappear overnight? Kelli Rogers knows. A global development journalist who moved from the newsroom to the State Department and back again, she's now leading the Aid Report at DevEx — documenting the real human cost of the foreign assistance cuts and the dismant...

She was a new mom, weeks postpartum, when she got fired. No warning. No plan. Just a career she’d spent 18 years building — gone. Kathleen Borgueta wasn’t supposed to become a founder. She was supposed to go back to work at USAID, where she’d overseen global health programs across 15 countries in East and Central Africa, managed COVID vaccine rollouts, and built cold chain infrastructure in Somali...

He was in the room when it happened. Alex Natsios sat next to his father, Andrew Natsios — former USAID Administrator, war veteran, conservative Republican — for four and a half hours as members of Congress stood up one by one and repeated the same false claims about USAID. He watched them do it knowing they were false. He watched Fox News run graphics contradicting his father’s own words while he...

What does food security really have to do with global stability and everyday life? In this episode, I’m joined by Marian Ostertag, a former USAID Foreign Service Officer who spent her career working on agriculture and food security. Marian explains why effective development work focuses on long-term systems — food, markets, and institutions — so countries can withstand shocks without constant emer...

In this powerful conversation, Ramona Godbole, former Deputy Director of Policy Planning and Programs at USAID’s Global Health Bureau, takes us inside the chaotic dismantling of America’s global health infrastructure—and the critical memo that became her final act of public service. Ramona led the development of USAID’s first-ever comprehensive global health policy, a document designed to sunset t...

JP, a third-generation Joseph Paul from “the other Dallas” (Pennsylvania), spent over a decade working on USAID projects across Africa and beyond—from Nigeria to Bangladesh, South Africa to Tanzania. From combating childhood malnutrition to strengthening civil society, he witnessed firsthand how American development work builds lasting partnerships worldwide. Then came the midnight news alert that...

In the Season Two premiere of Global Development Interrupted , host Leah Petit is joined by Chris Wurst , a former Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and the creator and host of the podcast SoftPower/Ful Stories . Chris spent more than two decades working in public diplomacy and communications, where he helped bridge the gap between data and lived experience by telling the h...

In our last episode, Ben Eveslage described what happened when U.S. global assistance suddenly stopped. Programs froze, but local partners kept showing up. Community organizations, peer educators, community volunteers, and community health workers were the ones who held things together when everything else fell away. This episode with Mananza Koné, USAID Côte d’Ivoire’s first Localization Officer,...

As we close out our focus on World AIDS Day, we talk with Ben Eveslage about a path that starts in suburban Michigan and extends across Ghana, Iraq, East Africa, and beyond, and the photography project he created to capture the people behind the HIV response. Ben shares how coming of age online opened his world and connected him to people far outside the borders of the United States. That instinct...

In last week’s episode, Eric Smith shared how USAID’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility worked to build an agency where people felt seen, valued, and included. That conversation served as a reminder that inclusion is not just a workplace ideal—it’s a strategy for better outcomes. This week, we carry that idea into the world of HIV. I’m joined by Kent Klindera, who spent mor...

Before USAID was dismantled, one small office was trying to bring the full breadth of America into public service. Eric Smith grew up in Massachusetts with Catholic values, conservative media, and a fascination with the Founding Fathers. That mix eventually led him to USAID, where he worked to expand who gets to serve and why it mattered. Eric explains how his team partnered with universities acro...

In 2014, Ebola reached U.S. shores—a wake-up call that pandemics anywhere can threaten communities everywhere. In response, the United States with other countries and international organizations launched the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), a global partnership to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging diseases before they spread. In this episode, former USAID Senior Public Health Advisor A...

Dr. George Siberry, former Chief Medical Officer in USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS, has spent his career at the heart of the global fight against HIV. A pediatrician by training, George began his journey translating for children with HIV in Baltimore and went on to help shape the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) approach to prevention, treatment, and care around the world. In this c...

Migration begins long before someone reaches a border — in the loss of stability, opportunity, and trust that makes it impossible to stay. For decades, USAID helped address those root causes by strengthening democratic institutions, supporting communities, and building stability before crises took hold. It was one of the few agencies designed to prevent displacement rather than respond to it. In t...

What does it mean to lead with service, not fear? In this episode, former USAID Democracy and Governance Director Jeremy Williamee shares how investing in local governments and community stability helped address the root causes of migration—long before people reached the border. From small-town New York to Central America, his story is a quiet reminder that lasting security comes not from walls or...

When USAID was dismantled, Ashley Vij was mid-call planning the rollout of one of the most promising HIV prevention tools in decades — Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection that could revolutionize access for women and hard-to-reach communities. In this episode, Ashley reflects on her path from Tucson to USAID, the power of unsexy investments like policy reform, and how she’s channeling loss into...

Annē Linn, a sixth-generation Montanan, shares how her faith and early exposure to child mortality statistics led her into global health. From Peace Corps Senegal to serving as a USAID Community Health Advisor with the President’s Malaria Initiative, she reflects on the simple, proven tools—bed nets, indoor residual spraying (IRS), medicine—that cut malaria deaths in half across 30 countries. For...

At just under two years old, Cathy Nguyen left Vietnam with her mother. On the very day Saigon fell, they landed in Hawaii, where they reunited with her father, who was studying for a master’s in public health on a USAID scholarship. That moment of upheaval and new beginnings shaped her family’s life and her own lifelong commitment to service. Cathy’s story weaves together family legacy, global ch...

As a child on Chicago’s South Side, Lauren Murphy dreamed of becoming a nun to help others. Decades later, she found herself working for USAID, supporting the U.S. government’s global efforts to care for children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. In this conversation, Lauren reflects on what it meant to serve communities affected by HIV — designing programs that kept children healthy, safe,...