One question project: Cindy Y. Huang
How do you navigate the demands of responding to global emergencies while maintaining a sense of balance and connection in your personal life?
There are many times when I’ve lost that sense of balance and connection. When I was helping tens of thousands of unaccompanied children arriving in the US in 2021, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that we needed to do more than time allowed and the weight of the policy and political dynamics.
Three things bring me back to connecting with what is equally real in our lives.
First, family and friends. In the hardest moments of that time, my husband would encourage me to go to the park across the street to have breakfast with him and our children. Even if I had just five minutes before my phone rang, I was reminded of the simple joys that exist alongside impossibly hard challenges.
Second, mindfulness meditation. I’ve been meditating for as long as I’ve been an aid worker. I’m not sure I could do one without the other. A key insight for me was that meditation doesn’t stop your thoughts. Rather, you learn to notice your thoughts and bring awareness back to your breath and body.
There is a Buddhist teaching that compares wisdom and compassion to the two wings of a bird. I had a rare feeling of clarity when I heard that. It snapped me out of the view that compassion is the north star. It’s not about responding to suffering until you’re so exhausted that you have no choice but to focus on self-care (which is essential, of course!). You also need to develop tools to understand your mind and motivations, your strengths and blind spots. That self-awareness is valuable for its own sake, and also to help you show up for others in ways that are more sustainable and strategic.
Third, history. When I’m really inside my head or can’t fall asleep, I listen to my favorite podcasts: Empire (covering everything from the Mongol to British empires) and I Know Dino (deep dives on dinosaurs from an even bigger span of time). On one hand, it’s strange to go back in time to connect to the present moment. On the other hand, it is an abiding reminder that people and creatures before us also faced plagues, wars, and environmental catastrophes.
Or more simply, I think about something a meditation teacher once said: as he walked through the woods, he would look at an old rock wall. He would think about the person walking by the same wall a hundred years ago, and how their life was just as vivid and compelling to them as our lives are to us today.
Emergencies of one kind or another – whether global, local, or personal – are inevitable. As hard as it can be, we cannot postpone living our full lives until the crisis is over. The only time to live fully is now.
About Cindy:
Cindy is an anthropologist, humanitarian, and champion for sustainable development. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, in America’s Mountain West with her husband, two kids, two kitties, and a dog.
Cindy started her career as a frontline humanitarian with Doctors without Borders and went on to serve in the US government and global non-profits, working to support people affected by conflict, displacement, and poverty. Most recently, she was the director of policy at USAID, the independent US agency that provided lifesaving and life-changing assistance until the Trump administration closed its doors in July 2025.
Today, Cindy is a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Migration Policy Institute. She collaborates with people across a spectrum of beliefs and views to reimagine the future of US foreign assistance for the next decade and beyond, as well as design future immigration systems that benefit both newcomers and the communities they join.
In the face of today’s stark challenges, Cindy remains grounded in hope. It is a hope that is at once robust and pragmatic.
If you want to be part of this project or know someone who would, please go here.