Federal Workers Speak
Catherine Baker U.S. Agency for International Development
Catherine Baker worked as a senior business development manager with private businesses that partnered with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Office of Transition Initiatives on conflict prevention and democracy rights internationally. Prior to this work, she recruited international aid professionals for USAID work around the world. When funding for USAID ended in 2025 and her contract was terminated, she joined the newly formed, volunteer leadership team at OneAID, an advocacy group dedicated to supporting former USAID employees and contractors and educating the American public about the importance of funding for international aid. Catherine was profiled in an April, 2026 New York Times article about the aftermath of the loss of USAID.
Most of my work for the past 10 years was for the Office of Transition Initiatives at USAID. I designed programs that furthered U.S. foreign policy interests and promoted positive change in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This work had direct national security implications.
During the first Trump administration, I worked on projects to counter violent extremism in Mozambique and Nigeria. These projects were stated priorities for the Trump administration. I have done work in all the terrorist hotspots — Syria, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Ethiopia, countries where there are armed conflicts or ideological terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS operating. We worked to decrease radicalization factors and to provide livelihood opportunities in areas where a lack of work made people more vulnerable to recruitment by terrorist groups. All of these efforts were directly correlated to American safety overseas and at home.
The work we were doing to counter terrorism cost far less than defense contracts and bombs and did not involve civilian casualties. It was a softer approach. Some of the programs I worked on cost $25 million — much less than the cost of bombs — over several years to decrease radicalization and stop terrorism at its source. The community programming we did informed the U.S. government’s and our allies’ understanding of potential or existing threats. The absence of USAID has hindered our ability to collect intelligence and anticipate attacks before they’re unleashed on the United States.
I also worked for a company supporting projects targeting crime and violence prevention, and youth engagement and support, in Latin America, specifically Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. We had a heavy presence to address the root causes of migration. I helped design USAID programs that worked at the local level to address factors causing people to migrate illegally to the United States, whether these were gang-related or livelihood-related. In Guatemala and Honduras, for instance, climate change is affecting the ability of farmers to farm and to provide for themselves and their families. The work we did supported local communities there and ultimately stability in the U.S.
To my knowledge, every program I worked on has been terminated by DOGE. My company, at this time last year, had had all but one USAID contract terminated. What happened to the work of our government that was for our benefit and for the good of people all around the world? Where did that money go? It has been reported that a good portion of the USAID budget is going to the private security detail of Russ Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, instead of going to life-saving aid or combating terrorism overseas. This isn't what Congress appropriated these U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund.
I joined OneAID in late March of 2025. Our mission is to sustain and empower the U.S. foreign assistance community by serving as a connector and information hub. We have a following of over 16,000 people now and 41 groups that cover 46 U.S. states, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. We help foreign assistance professionals with job leads and networking. We look for any way to support our people by providing mental health and wellness resources and by sharing financial assistance resources. We include anyone who touched foreign assistance, whether they worked with USAID, the State Department, Peace Corps, Millennium Challenge Corporation, or Voice of America, and were federal workers or contractors, or were employed by a private organization or business, as I was. Anyone whose work was related to foreign assistance, you have a home with us.
We recognize that whether you were at the federal government, a nonprofit, or a for-profit, you were part of an ecosystem that depended on technical expertise, language skills, and connections and trust with local communities and local government leaders. It’s paramount that we recognize all the people who were active in that ecosystem, and celebrate their service, and support them.
We are trying to remain engaged as a community for whatever comes in the future and to empower the people we represent to serve as ambassadors for U.S. foreign aid. We have raised $12,000 for grants through our Ambassadors Program. We are empowering former USAID employees to educate Americans, with the goal of informing public opinion about the importance of the work we did.
I am one of a core management team of three people at OneAID. From April to August of 2025, when I had to take some leave time, I was working harder than when I had a full-time job, often 60 hours a week, seven days a week. Our estimates are that about 40% of our community remain unemployed. Out of the 60% that are employed, probably more than half are what we would call underemployed. On average, former USAID employees and related workers are taking about a 40% pay cut if they do find work. The private sector, especially in the D.C. area, cannot absorb the amount of talent our community represents. USAID was the best-educated agency within the U.S. government, with over 30% of employees holding a master's degree or above. Unemployment in D.C. the last I checked was close to 7%, one of the worst job markets in the country.
Some people I know have managed to get jobs as defense contractors, a very painful thing they have had to resort to because it is the opposite of the work we were doing. A lot of people I know, myself included, are for the first time ever in the gig economy. The last report I read, bars and restaurants were closing at the rate of two per week in D.C. Even service jobs, such as waiting tables, are very hard to come by. Even one year after the stop-work order, many were still experiencing long-term unemployment. There's financial desperation that comes with this. There's a huge hit to people's self-esteem that comes with this. There’s also the risk for bias in the recruitment process when people are submitting resumes, and they have such a significant gap in employment.
One of the ways that USAID countered extremism in the field was by bringing people together and stopping the dehumanization. In West Africa I worked on a program to discourage stereotyping and promote friendships across communities and ethnic groups to reduce tensions between them. This only happens when you put faces and names on a community, and you hear their stories, and you see yourself in their stories and experiences. As former federal workers and related contractors, we have to keep doing this now for ourselves — telling our own stories — no matter how old it feels more than a year after USAID was shut down, no matter how tired we are and no matter what risks we may be taking, because if we don't try to control the narrative of what's being said about us, it will be controlled for us.
Catherine Baker currently has part-time work in senior care companionship, assisting elderly and disabled clients with basic needs. She is committed to continuing her volunteer work with OneAID and to advocating for the thousands of people affected by the dismantling of USAID and related agencies. She lives in Washington, D.C.