Bureaucrat to Baby Steps

Category: Community

  • Part 4: Beyond Survival: How a Mother’s Group Changed My Postpartum

    Part 4: Beyond Survival: How a Mother’s Group Changed My Postpartum

    Before I became a mother, I thought I understood the value of mother’s groups. During my time working as a Food for Peace officer, I managed programs in developing countries where mother’s groups were an important part of the program design. They were spaces where women came together to learn about nutrition for themselves and…

  • Part 2: The Net of Community That Carried Me

    Part 2: The Net of Community That Carried Me

    In my first post, Part 1: Birth — The Six Week Postpartum Journey, I wrote about the intensity of those first weeks after giving birth — the physical recovery, the emotional shifts, and the reality that postpartum doesn’t magically resolve at six weeks. What I didn’t fully talk about then was this:I didn’t go through…

  • Networking in a Changing Job Market: Why Who You Know Still Shapes Your Career

    Networking in a Changing Job Market: Why Who You Know Still Shapes Your Career

    Networking has always been part of how careers move forward, but stepping into the professional world again—outside the government—has made me realize just how brutally true it is: it’s often who you know, not just what you know, that opens doors. The days when DEIA initiatives kept hiring conversations somewhat balanced feel like they’re on…

  • Finding My Way Back to Joy: How My DC Community Carried Me Through a Year of Change

    Finding My Way Back to Joy: How My DC Community Carried Me Through a Year of Change

    This past year has been one of the hardest—and most beautiful—chapters of my life. It was a year filled with seismic shifts: the dismantling of USAID as I knew it, the uncertainty of unemployment, a pregnancy that tested every part of me, and the fear of stepping into motherhood without the stability I had once…