Sarina Beges-Thysen

In September 2013, Sarina Beges was appointed CDDRL's associate director. In this capacity, Sarina manages the administrative and program operations of the Center. She also oversees all CDDRL communications and supervises CDDRL's practitioner-based programs, which includes: the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Programs and the mid-career leadership network of Draper Hills alumni network. She works closely with the CDDRL director and deputy director to ensure the smooth operation and growth of CDDRL's programs and activities.

In October 2010, Sarina joined CDDRL to serve as program manager coordinating the Center’s diverse research programs, overseeing strategic communications, planning seminars and conferences, and identifying new opportunities to expand the Center's reach and influence. Beges worked to manage the center's growing practitioner-based programming, which includes the Draper Hills Summer Fellows program and the Program on Social Entrepreneurship.

Sarina is a co-founder of the Stanford Program on Social Entrepreneurship, which helps to prepare the next generation of social leaders for service-based careers. The Program hosts a residency for social enetrepreneurs at Stanford to bring them inside academia to document their impact, work with students, and broaden their professional networks. 

Sarina comes to CDDRL from the Synergos Institute, a New York based non-profit organization committed to addressing issues of poverty and inequality worldwide. At Synergos, Sarina managed the Arab World Social Innovators program, a USAID-funded initiative identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine. During her three years managing the program, Sarina advised entrepreneurs in the scaling-up of their entrepreneurial ventures, designed monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess impact, and traveled to the region for program activities.

Before joining Synergos, Sarina received her master’s degree in 2007 from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC where she concentrated in Middle East studies and international economics. In 2005, Sarina pursued advanced Arabic language studies at the American University of Cairo’s prestigious Arabic Language Institute. Prior to beginning graduate school, Sarina worked at Pfizer in the Corporate Finance group. She holds a B.A. in international relations from Boston University. Sarina has traveled extensively in the Middle East and is proficient in French and Arabic.

You can follow her on Twitter @sbeges.