WASHINGTON, D.C. – Janina Jaruzelski was sworn in today as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director to Bangladesh. USAID Associate Administrator Mark Feierstein administered the oath and Acting Assistant Administrator for Asia Denise Rollins delivered remarks.

Jaruzelski assumes leadership at a time when Bangladesh is a partner country for all three major U.S. Government development initiatives: Feed the Future (addressing global food insecurity), Global Climate Change and the Global Health Initiative. Bangladesh is committed to becoming a middle-income country by 2021, its 50th year of independence. USAID assistance supports this goal by promoting democratic institutions and practices, economic opportunity, effective health and education services, food security, responsiveness to climate change, and preparedness and response to natural disasters.

Jaruzelski, a member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor, has served with USAID since 1995 in both Washington, D.C. and overseas posts. Most recently, Jaruzelski was the USAID mission director in Bolivia, where she served through September 2013.

From 2008 to 2012, Jaruzelski served as mission director for USAID’s Regional Mission in Ukraine. In this position she oversaw all USAID programming in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, including projects in democracy and governance, economic growth, energy infrastructure, health, education, HIV/AIDS and counter-trafficking in persons. She also oversaw the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) Threshold Country Programs for Ukraine and Moldova, which USAID managed on MCC’s behalf.

Prior to her assignment as mission director in Ukraine, she served as acting mission director, deputy mission director and regional legal advisor for USAID/Russia, and as legal advisor to the Europe and Eurasia Bureau in Washington. Jaruzelski has also served in Egypt and Yemen.

Prior to her service at USAID, Jaruzelski was counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee, and she served as assistant counsel to the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. She also worked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and at Macmillan Publishing Company. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the American Foreign Service Association from 1995 to 1997.

Jaruzelski has been awarded three Superior Honor Awards and numerous Meritorious Honor, performance and group awards by USAID. Jaruzelski graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.