- Emily B. Brown lost nearly $63,000 in contract work for federal foreign aid agencies.
- Brown specializes in gender equality and social inclusion — initiatives that Trump is eradicating.
- She’s part of the ripple effects of Trump’s slashing of federal spending and crackdown on DEI.
Emily B. Brown has been a self-employed consultant long enough to know that her cash flow is often feast or famine. But what she couldn’t prepare for was the dismantling of federal agencies that funded much of her work.
In February, she lost all of her contracted income for 2025 — a ripple effect of President Donald Trump’s government spending freeze and cuts to US foreign aid.
Because she owns her own business, Brown isn’t eligible for unemployment benefits. She’s had to pick up two part-time jobs in retail and as a scuba diving instructor to pay her basic expenses like rent.
“I have to support myself,” Brown, who lives in Key West, Florida, said. “I haven’t worked in any industry but politics and foreign aid since I was 21.”
Brown is among the thousands of American workers at home and overseas whose lives were upended by Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid, the termination of 83% of the US Agency for International Development’s programs, and the gutting of nearly all of USAID’s 10,000 personnel.
Trump and Elon Musk’s White House DOGE office argue the moves put “American interests” first and reduce wasteful spending, while opponents of the administration’s actions are raising alarm that the US will cede global influence to China and are already causing preventable deaths overseas.
“President Trump serves the American people, not government contractors who want to make a buck off of taxpayers through DEI and other programs that do not align with the America First agenda,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Business Insider in a statement. “He is implementing policies that drive private sector growth, uplift small businesses, and level the playing field for American companies on the world stage.”
The administration and DOGE have been hit with a flurry of lawsuits challenging the USAID shutdown and efforts to shrink the federal workforce. While the fate of US international development plays out in the courts, Brown’s career path is in limbo.
DEI work dries up
Brown, 39, has worked in international development for more than a decade and specializes in gender equality and social inclusion.
She lined up three contracts for 2025, totaling about $63,000, funded by USAID and the Millenium Challenge Corporation, an independent foreign aid agency that awards grants to lower-income countries to promote economic growth, reduce poverty, and root out corruption.
Starting in late January, that work came to a halt — zeroing out Brown’s expected earnings, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider.
Brown shared e-mails showing that her contract with a USAID-funded program was terminated as of February 13. It was an anti-corruption program aimed at countering illicit money laundering in industries like shipping ports and real estate. Brown was assigned to Albania, which is trying to enter the European Union by 2030, and Ghana. She was set to travel to Albania and conduct gender analyses to identify who was most vulnerable to corruption or exploitation when she got an order to stop working.
Brown said she hasn’t been paid for the work she completed in January and shared an invoice showing she is owed nearly $3,700 — a month’s worth of her expenses by the Millenium Challenge Corporation, a partner of USAID.
Emails show that Brown’s two other contracts with the Millenium Challenge Corporation are on hold while they are reviewed by the Trump administration. Brown was going to conduct research on the barriers that girls, women, persons with disabilities, and others face in accessing secondary education in Timor Leste and Gambia. The research would help MCC plan for potential investments in those countries.
“My expertise is in gender equality and social inclusion,” Brown said. “What that means in international development programming is making sure that US-funded programs reach the most in-need and at-risk. That is generally women, children, and people with disabilities.”
Brown said the Biden administration’s focus on equity created a lot of opportunities for her consulting services. But after Trump won the election, she started to see that work dwindle. Even if the MCC investments do move forward, Brown said she’s worried her expertise won’t be needed anymore as the Trump administration eradicates diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the federal government.
“At the end of 2024, organizations were starting to become a little more cautious,” Brown said. “Then post-election, much more cautious with how they were investing funds in consultants with gender and inclusion expertise.”
Brown said the weeks after her contracts dried up were dark. In Key West, there aren’t many workers reliant on the federal government like her, so few understand the grief she’s feeling. She also feels scared about the future because Trump and DOGE are targeting civil society organizations that don’t align with their agenda. She described it as “authoritarian.”
“It wasn’t until I started getting out on that dive boat at least once or twice a week in the sun and in the water that I started to feel a little better emotionally and physically,” Brown said. “I still choke up on my free days.”
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