USAID ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

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Fully Funding the USAID Staff Financial Support Fund

(Final day for receipt of applications is December 31, 2025)

CLICK HERE to donate to UAA’s fund, by credit card, check, or other means.

CLICK HERE for grant application guidelines and application form. (All applications must be received by December 31, 2025.)

 In the couple weeks since we last edited this posting (December 15), we received an additional $120,000 in donations, resulting in a total donation level of just over $480,000.  This amazingly generous show of support for the USAID community has allowed the fund to reduce significantly the number of unfunded eligible applications.  However, some remain and new ones may arrive before the application deadline of December 31, 2025.

We will continue to solicit donations into 2026 so that we can fund as many remaining eligible applications as possible.  We ask that you help us in this effort by donating what you can.  Every donation, regardless of the amount, has a meaningful impact on the development community and the international development future.

Many of our recipients have no pension rights and only short-term health insurance benefits.  They all are navigating a challenging job market while also trying to manage family responsibilities – child and/or elder care, relocation, medical costs, housing, etc.

One of our recipients wrote, “Thank you and all of the UAA members and USAID family so very, very, very much!  I truly appreciate it and this will be so helpful for my family and my children in particular.  This is incredibly helpful as childcare is incredibly expensive and this will really help us get by a little longer so that I can focus on my job search and professional transition after the RIF.”

As a reminder, the UAA has partnered with the Greater Washington Community Foundation to provide low-cost, efficient management services for the fund. Staff who were involuntarily separated or took early retirement from a USAID position after January 20, 2025, and who fall into one of the following employment categories are eligible to apply for a grant: GS, FS, FSL, USPSC, RSSA, PASA, AD, Schedule C, or Fellow position; or former FSN released from USAID-related employment after January 20, 2025 and with SIV residence in the USA for 1 year or less.

The UAA thanks you for your generous support!

CLICK HERE to donate to UAA’s fund, by credit card, check, or other means.

CLICK HERE for grant application guidelines and application form.

Resource Directory for Involuntarily Separated USAID Staff (click here)

Note from the UAA Board, Jan. 5, 2026

Welcome to 2026!

The year 2025 will be remembered as a defining moment. Those who have served USAID are no strangers to complexity or challenge, yet this past year tested us in ways few could have anticipated. And still, it revealed something powerful: the depth of our shared values and the strength of our community.

When circumstances demanded it, we came together—more connected, more determined, and more unified than ever before. Our association grew, welcoming new members and energizing our regional chapters. Through gatherings both large and small, we affirmed that our community endures, grounded not in circumstance, but in shared purpose.

We stood beside our USAID colleagues when it mattered most—offering job training, advocacy, and financial support. We joined forces with like-minded organizations to defend the importance of development assistance and to honor the professionalism and dedication of those who serve. We safeguarded the Agency’s history, preserving its memorabilia and protecting vital records that reflect decades of development expertise and impact. And we convened a thoughtful and well-attended Annual General Meeting that challenged us to ask not only what has been lost, but what must come next.

As we look ahead, the opportunity before us is clear. We can engage the American public with renewed conviction about why foreign assistance and American leadership matter. We can help shape policy conversations and advance development thought leadership. We can deepen connections with new members, strengthen our regional chapters, and broaden our circle to include all who have served the Agency.

So let us step into 2026 with confidence and resolve. Let us carry forward the lessons of the past year, renew the bonds that unite us, and continue building a community defined by service, integrity, and shared belief in a better future.

USAID Knowledge Rescue

USAID’s legacy includes research, data, photos, human interest stories, and collective expertise accumulated over the last six decades of the Agency’s work. Recognizing the urgent need to locate, preserve, and share these resources, the UAA has teamed up with the AtA to collect materials to create a free, searchable database. Join our LinkedIn Group to stay up to date.

So far, we’ve collected 145,393 resources and received individual interview requests from 140 former staff. Share materials you want included in the database. You can also request materials with the same link. If you would like to be considered for an interview, please complete our expression of interest form, and we’ll contact you directly.

Our individual interviews will start in earnest in October, with up to 60 interviews per month.  We also are testing an approach to carrying out group discussions on specific approaches, methodologies and tools; the first two (Nature, and Power/Natural Resource Management; and Political Economy Analysis/Thinking Politically) will be piloted later in October, and others will be rolled out later in the year.

News About USAID

Unless otherwise stated, the links below are for information purposes only and do not convey the endorsement of the UAA, its members, or its Board.  See:

1) Bulletin Board, including Statements from UAA about Current Events

2) Articles

Please let us know if you have questions or ideas. We are eager to hear from you! A reminder that as an all-volunteer association, we need you to sign up for our various committees. Please see the UAA website committee’s page here to read more about what each committee has been up to. Also, a reminder to pay your annual dues for 2025. If you have already done so, thank you!

Calendar

New!  January 21, 2026, 9:00-10:30 am EST, Live Webinar 

When A Difficult Year Echoes: Navigating Anniversary Stress Related to the Foreign Aid Freeze.  This webinar, open to all members of the international humanitarian and development community, will offer a compassionate exploration of anniversary stress related to the foreign aid freeze.  Click here to register. 

What’s New in the UAA National Chapters?

To increase UAA’s relevance, expand its reach, boost membership, and address the impact of the unplanned dismantling of USAID, UAA is strongly supporting and encouraging the gatherings of USAID Alumni nationwide and abroad. Currently, Florida and California are the most active and have established UAA Chapters. New England and Pennsylvania groups are active, and Oregon and Washington State are growing.

California Chapter: There are five active local groups. San Diego-Orange County, Los Angeles-Desert, Central Coast (Santa Barbara), San Francisco-Oakland, Sacramento-Sierra. Each group meets in person and provides networking and job search support, as well as builds a USAID-community of friendship and general support. For further information contact Christine Sheckler at cmtsheckler@gmail.com
California Chapter groups in action in December:

Florida Chapter: Florida has been very active for several years. Their model includes partnering closely with the Florida Foreign Service Alumni Association.  Miles Toder reached out to all former USAID colleagues who moved to Florida this year. They are settling in and sharing their stories; many have joined UAA to take advantage of concessional membership fees for the first two years (UAA’s membership doubled this year), to find ways to keep in touch with other development professionals, and to rebuild and broaden their network of people with foreign affairs interests.

Register to join the Florida Annual Meeting on January 16 virtually or in St Petersburg to hear the guest speaker from AFSA, to met the larger and better-established group of former FSOs, and to consider joining the Florida organization.  Contac t Miles Toder at milestoder@hotmail.com or Alan VanSegmond at alanvanegmond@gmail.com.

Expanding UAA participation: Earlier in 2025, then UAA Outreach Co-Chair, Christine Sheckler, made a five-Western States road trip to assess interest in forming local UAA Chapters and prepare to welcome and support our returning USAID friends and colleagues.

In December, Tony Pryor, UAA Board-Membership liaison, made a three-Western States trip to meet with recent USAID returnees to hear their stories as part of UAA’s “Keeping the Flame and Knowledge Management” initiatives.

Tony Pryor traveled to San Diego, Portland, and Seattle the week of December 14 to meet with Christine Sheckler to discuss options for expanding Alumni participation, the implications for membership and programming, and the UAA work on saving USAID knowledge. Christine Sheckler hosted an eight-member San Diego meeting.

Carissa Page then hosted a meeting in Portland, Oregon, with 15 members. They met to discuss UAA’s plans for the coming year and how they could get involved.  Reaching out to the chapters, and rethinking the role they could play, was received enthusiastically.

Friendsgiving 2025

On December 13 we gathered for our first UAA Friendsgiving. The event was held in Alexandria from 3-5 with 36 members plus families and friends.  Good conversations and lots of great food as UAA provided turkeys and ham while folks brought family favorite sides and desserts to share. From the looks of the tables, no one went hungry!  We were very encouraged to see a mix of new and old members meeting and reacquainting themselves, sharing news and contacts.

We took the opportunity to share new Information on the state of UAA efforts to continue to support foreign assistance writ large and re-think what UAA’s role should be going forward and an update on the USAID Staff Financial Support Fund. In short, UAA continues to be involved in briefings and discussions on the Hill and in conjunction with our allied organizations. Tony is working on a piece on future directions which will be shared and discussed. The Support Fund needs remain and if you can fit it into your end of year giving the website is here, or you can go to the UAA website article above.

As always, the teamwork was so fluid and flawless. Everyone just jumped in all day long! Thank you, Paula and Patrick, for the final push in cleaning up. Margot, Melissa, Sharon, Denise and Monika for all the planning and execution. Roberta and David for giving us a landing pad to store our treasures. Chris for all the wonderful memories in photos. Tony for carving the birds.

Many thanks to EVERYONE for all of the food, laughter and camaraderie! Till the next time…spring will bring Winterfest to shake the blues and move into spring!  Photographs from the rogue’s gallery can be found at this link.

NOTE:  The following lost items were found at either the Sept. 6 picnic or the Dec. 13 Friendsgiving Potluck event.  If anyone would like to claim one of them please contact Karen Freeman at ugandakaren@hotmail.com

FSN Gathering in Indonesia

More than 100 FSN alumni of USAID/Indonesia gathered in Jakarta for a reunion on November 23. The event, which was organized and managed by the Indonesian alumni, was held in the American Club. It drew 171 registrants, including a few USAID FSOs who had remained in Indonesia when the mission closed. Former USAID/Indonesia International Development Intern (IDI) Diana Putman (in Indonesia 1985-1988) happened to be in Jakarta in November when she heard about the planned reunion and was invited to attend.
Diana reported that the program opened with videos and slideshows, including videos by former USAID/Indonesia Directors Jeff Cohen and Desaix “Terry” Myers. It also included speakers, games, and lunch. The retired FSNs at the reunion represented the mission’s long presence in Indonesia: a few had joined USAID/Indonesia back in the 1960s. It was a lively, friendly gathering. While many of the younger people are still working hard to find new careers Diana commented that “the overall mood at the event was high.”

This is the group of old-timers. The very tall man next to Diana is Indro Soebagio. The man with the white shirt and white hair is Pak Agus. Sitting next to Oemi is Ibu Retno in the flowered jacket and next to her is Ibu Lanna who also started in 1968.

UAA Annual General Meeting

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2025 UAA Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 31, either in-person or virtually. Your active participation enriched the meeting and brought in many new ideas.

Many thanks to Jim Kunder whose thoughtful keynote address was an inspiring way to launch the meeting with its challenge to envision what comes after USAID in the arena of development collaboration. The panel continued with a stimulating discussion of the future of international development collaboration. The panel was moderated by Masood Ahmed of CGD with panelists Ndidi Nwuneli from the One Campaign, Charles Kenny of CGD and Andrew Herscowitz from the Rockefeller Foundation.

UAA Board Co-Chair Roberta Mahoney briefed the members on UAA’s work during the past year, focusing on the period after the destruction of USAID. The briefing included a description by Board member Tony Pryor of ongoing activities related to knowledge preservation. USAID’s legacy includes research, data, photos, human interest stories, and collective expertise accumulated over the last six decades of the Agency’s work.

 Recognizing the urgent need to locate, preserve, and share these resources, the UAA teamed up with the Aid Transition Alliance (AtA) to collect materials to create a free, searchable database.

Tony Chan, UAA Board Co-chair led the discussion during the session on the future of UAA. This discussion was especially important given that UAA will have to adapt to very different circumstances without USAID. Discussions about expanding membership eligibility and key areas of work will benefit greatly from membership inputs, especially from the new members, as we look to the future directions of the organization. We will hear more about the plans for those discussions from the UAA Board in the coming weeks.

As new committees and working groups are established, please sign up! UAA depends largely on volunteers for most of our work. It is important that former USAID-associated staff from all over the country are represented on these working groups.

If you have not filled out the AGM evaluation form, please do so as soon as possible by clicking here. We always benefit from hearing directly from UAA members on how to improve the AGM for the following year. If you were not able to attend at all, please click here for a full recording of the meeting and here for the written report. Click here to see more photos from the event.

Rotary Club Peace Award to USAID

On September 24, thirty USAID California alumni received the Berkeley Rotary Peace Award. 175 Berkeley Rotarians honored USAID’s decades of global Peace efforts. UC Berkeley Chancellor Lyons and Berkeley Mayor Ishii commended USAID for its countless contributions in international development and humanitarian assistance, including critical research. A USAID Peace Tree was planted in Berkeley’s Tilden Park, alongside those for past recipients like Nelson Mandela.

On behalf of USAID, UAA’s Christine Sheckler, a UC Berkeley graduate, proudly received the Berkeley Rotary Peace Award certificate from Berkeley Rotary Organizer, Maxim Schrogin.

UAA Florida Regional Chapter welcomes former USAID staff to Florida

At a meeting of the Foreign Service Retiree Association (FSRA), soon to be renamed Foreign Service Alumni Association (FSAA) of Florida that took place in Delray Beach on Florida’s east coast on September 9th, 2025, many of the 35 participants, mostly from the southern half of the state were former employees of USAID, recently returning to live and work in Florida following the shutdown of our foreign assistance agency. The AFSA affiliated FSAA organization is in the process of changing from a state-wide group of about 400 retired Foreign Service Officers from the five foreign affairs agencies to an alumni association of professionals having worked in diplomacy and development under the auspices of the USG. In partnership with UAAs pioneering Florida Chapter, we are growing and adapting to the needs and preferences of a larger, younger and more diverse group of former federal employees. We hope to help each other and explain to our fellow Floridians why we need to be engaged on the world stage, how that benefits us at home and the benefits of continuing to lead as we have since the Second World War.

The Delray Beach event featured as its luncheon speaker former Ambassador Liliana Ayalde who first served with USAID before joining the State Department and has been a longtime supporter of FSRA and UAA. She spoke about the current unsettling and unprecedented changes to diplomacy and development to an audience who care deeply about both. The luncheon and smaller group meeting afterward were great opportunities to meet a number of new colleagues and reconnect with others who settled in Florida years ago. Each of our new colleagues has a somewhat different story to tell and some significant life and work adjustments to make now that they are returned to Florida and are no longer working for the USG. We look forward to including this large and growing group of colleagues in our social and professional networks, providing advice and information as needed, and sharing what we all have learned living and working abroad with our fellow Americans across the state of Florida with its own development challenges.

UAA Development Issues Committee Discussion: 

Tod Preston, Executive Director of the Managing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) 

The Development Issues Committee hosted Tod Preston, Executive Director of the Managing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) on October 7, 2025.  Mr. Preston highlighted MFAN’s advocacy for transparency in foreign assistance, the importance of local ownership and for continuing support for international development. He discussed the fiscal year 2026 appropriations deliberations noting that, despite concerning reductions overall, some sectors have received support on Capitol Hill. He referred to recent publications by MFAN on the Department of State’s Global Health Strategy and on recommendations regarding the operational requirements for administering foreign assistance. Salient points from the ensuing discussion addressed windows of opportunity for rebuilding development assistance and the importance of reestablishing an independent development arm of the U.S. Government.  You can view a video of the discussion by clicking here.   You can read a transcript of the discussion by clicking here. 

UAA/DACOR Development Dialogue: 

USGLC President and CEO Liz Schrayer on “How America Wins in the World”

On Tuesday, September 30, 2025, USGLC President and CEO Liz Schrayer spoke to a sell-out luncheon audience at DACOR. She backed up her talk’s ambitious title “How America Wins in the World” by citing a number of recent important USGLC accomplishments in addressing today’s challenges and by setting out a program of ideas for further building support for development cooperation throughout the nation and in Congress. Many of these ideas are included in the USGLC’s recent report linked here. She welcomed the suggestion for close cooperation with UAA in support of common objectives. At Ms. Schrayer’s request the program was not recorded.

UAA Development Issues Committee Discussion: 

Dr. Homi Kharas on “From Aid-Driven To Investment-Driven Models of Sustainable Development”

The Development Issues Committee hosted a discussion on September 9 with Dr. Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow with the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Kharas presented his co-authored paper, “From Aid-Driven to Investment-Driven Models of Sustainable Development.” The paper argues that development finance should be based on estimates of financial needs for environmentally sustainable development in Emerging and Developing Economies in an inter-connected world and that both public and private resources should be mobilized to address these needs. Identified needs include health and education, physical infrastructure, resilience, biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture.

“The Enduring Struggle:  The History of the U.S. Agency for International Development and America’s Uneasy Transformation of the World “

by John Norris

John Norris‘ book, The Enduring Struggle – The History of the Agency for International Development and America’s Uneasy Transformation of the World, was published in July 2021. In a short review, Foreign Affairs wrote:  “This comprehensive history of the U.S. Agency for International Development…deserves to be read by all students of U.S. foreign policy.”  A very positive review of The Enduring Struggle by Mary Jane Maxwell has recently been published in the Journal of World History.  (Read it here.)  Copies may be purchased from the publisher at a 30 percent discount by using the form at this link.  Alumni with suggestions for events that will popularize the book or to generate reviews should send their suggestions to Alex Shakow at ashakow@comcast.net.

50 Years of Global Health

50 Years of Global Health, Saving Lives and Building Futures was written in 2013 to capture the rich and diverse experience of USAID in the field of Global Health.  The main audience is current and future USAID professionals who would benefit from learning from the past to build stronger global health programs in the future. The document content was overseen by a 13-member Health History Project Advisory Committee that had members throughout USAID. It involved a desk review of over 350 documents (all listed in the annex), 26 key informant interviews and four online surveys with current and former global health professionals.

The book contains a decade-by-decade review of global health programs since 1960, provides a timeline for each decade of events, includes informative graphs, charts and key data, presents lessons learned over this time and thoughts for the future of global health.  It was intended to be a living document with the content online so that additional years of experience could be added.  The book has been disseminated since 2015 and has also been used by the broader development community to get a better understanding of USAID’s essential contribution in this important field. It is an essential and valuable tool for those looking to capture 50 years of experience and lessons in past USAID global health programs. Please click here to see a copy of the full report.

Additions to the Bibliography of USAID Authors

Supporting Our Mission Israel LE Staff Colleagues Via the FSN Emergency Relief Fund

Our colleagues, especially the Locally Employed Staff at Mission Israel and those residing in Gaza, are directly affected by the war between Israel and Hamas.  This includes those working for USAID.

AFSA would like to draw attention to the opportunity for all of us to meaningfully support our colleagues by giving to the FSN Emergency Relief Fund. We urge you to continue reading here to learn more about this Fund and to explore how you can lend your support.

Emergency Relief Funds for Ukraine:  for FSNs and for Ukrainian Citizens

For information about contributing to relief of the Ukraine emergency, including the FSN Emergency Relief Fund and ways to support the people of Ukraine compiled by DACOR Bacon House Foundation’s Development Office, click here.

UAA Partnership with American University Library Archives

Since 2019 the American University Library Archives have welcomed donations of AID alumni personal memorabilia of their USAID service. The UAA has now established a partnership with the Archives to support the preparation, processing, and making available to researchers of these papers, including those donated by the UAA and by individual alumni and others.  We envision the program will continue for five or more years; after two years the Archivist and UAA will assess the program’s effectiveness before committing for the additional years.  The UAA has pledged an initial sum of $10,000 over two years ($5,000 each year) to finance student interns to help prepare and organize these papers and make them more easily available. The funding for this program is drawn entirely from contributions made to the AID history project, which included the clear hope that the book would stimulate further study and understanding of AID’s more than 60 years of development history. AID alumni are strongly urged to consider donating their memorabilia to this collection. (See https://usaidalumni.org/uaa-and-american-university-archives-opportunity-for-usaid-alumni/)