Sara Anderson

Sara Anderson is the first Executive Director of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance, a trusted, neutral, cross-sector network working to strengthen the global health ecosystem. Since launching in 2020 with 16 founding organizations, Anderson has led the Alliance’s growth into a global network of more than 110 organizations, with a distinctive concentration of technology, private sector, and low- and middle-income country members. The Alliance has grown through two periods of profound upheaval in global health—the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent disruption in global health funding—helping organizations navigate rapid change, build relationships across sectors, and accelerate innovation, capital, and partnerships toward greater health impact. Anderson brings more than 30 years of experience in global health, advocacy, nonprofit leadership, partnership development, and strategic communications. Earlier in her career, she helped lead advocacy efforts in global surgery, burn care in low-income countries, and humanitarian response to famine in North Korea, working on Capitol Hill and with nonprofits and coalitions to influence U.S. policy and build strategic partnerships. She holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University and has studied systems design at Stanford and NGO leadership at Syracuse University. She has also served as a coach and partner with Stanford’s d.school Design for Extreme Affordability program.