Zuzana Papazoski has managed NDI’s Western Balkans regional parliamentary initiative since 2007. The initiative provides MPs and parliamentary staff from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia with opportunities to exchange best practices related to oversight of the state budget process, parliamentary budgeting, staff development, development of parliamentary expert services and new administrative structures, effective committee operations, and e-parliament technology applications; with the ultimate goal of improving lawmaking and increasing transparency. Ms. Papazoski previously oversaw the Institute’s parliamentary program in Montenegro, where she worked extensively with the Montenegrin parliament to develop new rules of procedure and structures that emphasized transparency and accountability in national policymaking. She originally joined the Institute in 2000, managing NDIs parliamentary program in her native Slovakia. Ms. Papazoski has demonstrated regional expertise through her work as a trainer and consultant in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in efforts undertaken with UNDP, OSCE/ODIHR, UNMIK and Freedom House. She possesses extensive experience providing strategic guidance to political parties, and has helped design several local and regional political campaigns. Ms. Papazoski was a co-founder, legal advisor and board member of Civic Eye/Obcianske Oko, a Bratislava-based domestic election monitoring and civic advocacy organization. Earlier, she was the project manager of youth election programs for the Association in Support of Local Democracy. Ms. Papazoski earned her Master’s in Law from Comenius University in Bratislava. She is fluent in Slovak, Czech, and English with a working knowledge of Polish and Serbian/Bosnian/Montenegrin.