Public Health and a Lost Future w...

Public Health and a Lost Future with Siham Ahmed (Payne Fellowship)

Deep Cuts by Eric Smith
S1 · E7
Aug 12, 2025
40:06

Episode notes

When a Federal Agency disappears, so do the futures it was trying to build.

This episode features Siham Ahmed, a 2024 Payne Fellow who was halfway through her graduate program on public health - funded by USAID - when her scholarship and future as a Foreign Service Officer was cut short. Join me as I speak with Siham about the importance of representation, community, public health, and her hopes for a bright future.

Keywords

politics
news
USAID
DOGE
cuts
budget
government
United States
America
aid
interview
development
international
health
public health
Africa
DEI
DEIA
policy
foreign service
civil service
diversity
democracy
activism
epidemiology
Georgia
Paine Fellowship
representation