A Kid from Queens

When Jen Erie published her memoir, she expected her global development colleagues to connect with it. She didn’t expect older white men to message her saying they saw their own lives in hers.

Jen Erie grew up the daughter of Haitian immigrants in Queens, New York. She went on to spend more than a decade as a USAID Foreign Service Officer — leading health programs across the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Thailand.

In this episode, Jen reflects on what that work actually looked like on the ground, the identity crisis that came with losing it, and what she discovered about herself — and others — when she finally told her story.

The result was a book, and a realization: this conversation reaches far beyond global development. At its core, it’s about shared humanity — how much more we have in common than we think, and what it looks like to turn grief into something others can learn from.

Want to learn more from Jen and pick up her book, The World Is My Bones? Visit her at www.jennifererie.com

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