We help governments design investment policies that attract the right investors, create quality jobs, and strengthen economic resilience. Strong public policy is what turns a country’s potential into lasting development."
Zenia Rogatschnig
It's one thing to read about development economics and microfinance, reflects Zenia (Lewis) Rogatschg (MPP ‘09), but it's another to understand the real complexities of implementing challenges on the ground.
As a Ford School student and William Davidson Institute Fellow, Rogatschnig traveled to Malawi for her summer internship to help coordinate the launch of a World Bank randomized controlled trial on microfinance programs led by Ford School economist Dean Yang. The project quickly became a masterclass in the realities of fieldwork: delayed shipments of biometric equipment, shifting expectations from paprika farmers, and challenges in collecting reliable data.
"These delays were unexpected, but they showed me that development is never linear," she says. "It was completely different from what I thought I would learn, but a huge learning experience nonetheless!"
For Rogatschnig, the experience provided a deeper awareness of how policy meets reality in developing countries, which was far more nuanced than anything she had imagined growing up in Alpena, Michigan. Back then, she knew little about international development; she envisioned becoming a doctor and having a career similar to working for Doctors Without Borders, despite not having known the organization existed at the time.
Her interests began shifting during her undergrad years, when she moved away from an initial focus on medicine after studying abroad in South Africa; volunteering in El Salvador; and taking courses on African and Caribbean literature, African political economy, and the history of humanitarian interventions. After graduating, she planned to go to law school, but that trajectory changed when a close friend lent her a book about medical anthropologist Paul Farmer, saying she might find it interesting. She soon found herself reading the books assigned in her friend's public health courses and realizing how deeply policy shapes outcomes in underrepresented and developing regions.
"Before long, I was waking up early before my law office job to read all the books assigned in my friend's class," she recalls. "I began to see how policy decisions shape opportunities in developing countries." Studying public policy, she realized, would allow her to contribute on a wider scale.
After graduating from the Ford School, Rogatschnig's first significant role was at the Brookings Institution, working for the Global Economy Department and conducting research on African economies and trade policy. An unexpected meeting with officials from the African Development Bank (AfDB) led to a pivotal career opportunity. Although she was only a research analyst at the time, her ideas on strengthening U.S.-Africa trade resonated with the AfDB officials, and they hired her to help launch a new initiative shaped by those recommendations.
"It was exciting to take what I had learned from research and turn it into real policy ideas," she says.
With the African Development Bank, she provided U.S.-Africa trade policy advice to the African Union (AU), built the capacity of trade and commercial officers from African embassies on U.S.-Africa trade and investment policy, and drafted policy briefs and talking points for senior AU officials. She also supported African countries in engaging with the U.S. State Department in preparation for the annual U.S.–sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forums, where she served as a key speaker in technical working groups advising delegations on trade and investment issues.
A major milestone in this work was helping the African Ambassador Group advocate for the 2015 renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a key law that supported U.S.-Africa trade. She helped shape the policy case; prepared Ambassadors, AU Commissioners, and other African diplomatic officials for congressional and White House meetings; and supported the overall strategy.
"It was an intense, coordinated effort," she recalls. "But seeing AGOA get renewed for ten more years and knowing what that meant for African businesses and workers—that was incredibly rewarding."
Today, as a Private Sector Specialist for the World Bank Group based in Vienna, Rogatschnig works with governments across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to design national investment strategies, strengthen investment promotion agencies, and support reforms that attract sustainable, high-quality private investment to create jobs and support economic growth. Her work ranges from supporting the development of investment strategies for the Governments of Ukraine and Egypt, to supporting Morocco's efforts to promote climate-smart industrial development, to helping Western Balkan economies align their investment policies with EU standards to prepare for accession and attract increased investment and jobs for the region.
"It is about leveraging a country's strengths, understanding its constraints, and turning analysis into actionable policies," she says.
We help governments design investment policies that attract the right investors, create quality jobs, and strengthen economic resilience. Strong public policy is what turns a country's potential into lasting development."
Zenia (Lewis) Rogatschnig (MPP ‘09)
Related fall 2025 State & Hill stories
Why policy education matters in the private sector 
Students build career-ready grant writing skills in Aid & Development Workshop series ← Read all stories in the fall 2025 edition State & Hill