Like thousands of other global development professionals, Samantha Hicks spent several years building a life, home, and career around Washington, D.C., which has long been a bustling jobs hub for the U.S. development sector.
But after spending eight years working her way up to a leadership recruiting position at Abt Global, her team was furloughed less than two weeks after the newly sworn-in president, Donald J. Trump, signed an executive order freezing U.S. foreign aid.
“At that point, I didn't know if I was going to go back. I didn't know if anybody on the team was going back, but I knew that there was no need for recruitment,” Hicks told Devex in an interview.