Olga Rostapshova has 15 years of experience in economic analysis, experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation design and project management. Olga’s research and evaluation experience has focused on the electricity sector, water infrastructure, private sector development, health, water and sanitation, and climate change. She has conducted randomized controlled trials and large-scale impact evaluations on the topics of entrepreneurship, microfinance, energy, water infrastructure, health, and air quality.
Rostapshova also serves as consulting Executive Director of the Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics at Harvard University, and advises the CRI Foundation and the non-profit Precision Agriculture for Development.
She formerly served as Technical Director at Social Impact (SI), a global development management consulting firm, where she was the Project Director of long-term evaluations of a number of infrastructure and economic growth projects for USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), including the MCC Mongolia Energy and Environment Project Impact Evaluation (IE), MCC Tanzania Water Sector Project IE, and the MCC Malawi Infrastructure Development Program and the Power Sector Reform Projects Performance Evaluations.
Prior to SI, Rostapshova served as co-principal investigator and research manager on projects with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the World Bank, and Ernst&Young’s Quantitative Economics and Statistics group. She has regional expertise in Eastern Europe, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Rostapshova holds a BA in Economics and BS in Engineering from Swarthmore College, and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University.