The Places She’s Been--Moldova, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh: MSU Alumna’s Career Has Spanned the Globe

<p>She's also been a magazine editor and the owner of a large, successful agricultural advertising agency.  In addition, Patricia is a distinguished alumni award recipient from MSU's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. </p><p>Orlowitz reflects on her more traditional communications career before 1997 and her international development career since. On the global front, she has worked on numerous U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) projects, in a variety of roles, at far flung locations all over the world.  </p><p> </p><p>The success of a six-year Private Farmers Assistance Program in Moldova was featured in People Magazine in 2000.  The project focused on land reform measures that broke up collective farms and issued private land titles to over 1 million Moldovans.  For her leadership on the project, Orlowitz was presented with the Republic of Moldova Civic Medal in 2001 by the president of Moldova.   </p><p> </p><p>More recently, in Bangladesh, Orlowitz worked with the World Food Programme, recipient of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, to design the first ever food assistance program in Dhaka’s urban slums. The pilot program helps 50,000 urban poor in two, low-income areas of Dhaka at high risk of COVID-19.  Beneficiaries receive cash-based transfers for fresh vegetables, staples, and eggs from local vendors, or, if they are quarantined with COVID symptoms, a food package delivered to their door.  </p><p> </p><p>Orlowitz also discusses other particularly rewarding, albeit often challenging projects.  In Cambodia, for example, Orlowitz and her team developed a ground-breaking program that helped to significantly reduce maternal and infant mortality during pregnancy and childbirth.  </p><p> </p><p>And then there were the challenges associated with her work with the USAID Afghanistan Division. “I will say every project is tough and rewarding at the same time,” says Orlowitz. “But, for a number of reasons, I did find Afghanistan especially difficult.”  One of those reasons had to do with h