SECWAC Presents: David Hess on "Burnin’ Down the House: The Unexpected End to a Career in USAID"

Who: David Hess, Former USAID Foreign Service Worker

When: Thursday April 10, 2025 – 5:30pm Reception | 6:00pm Presentation | 7:30pm Post-Presentation Dinner

Where: First Congregational Church of Old Lyme 

About the Speaker:

David Hess joined USAID in 1980, serving in its regional office for West Africa, living in the Ivory Coast.  Later he served in bilateral country offices in Peru, Bolivia, Guinea, India, Rwanda, and Mozambique. After retirement from the Foreign Service he continued to work with USAID, including a two year resident contract with USAID/Tanzania. He thought he was blissfully retired in bucolic Connecticut when he was recruited and hired to lead USAID/Tanzania’s project that helped the Agency monitor program progress, evaluate effects and defects, and learn and adapt to achieve greater impact with U.S. taxpayer dollars. He and his wife Donna flew out on January 20, 2025 to land in Dar es Salaam to begin the two year engagement. The new U.S. administration froze all USAID and other foreign assistance on January 24. David’s contract was soon terminated “for the convenience of the government” along with over 5,000 contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements that funded implement partners to save lives, monitor disease outbreaks, teach farming, feed starving refugees and other desperately poor, improve education, and strengthen democratic institutions in over 100 countries.