Sarena Chan
Partnerships Lead at the School of System Change
Background
Sarena leads on strategic partnership development across sectors in the School of the System Change to widen the global network of change makers working systemically. Before joining the School in 2020, she was a researcher at Stanford University focused on the intersection of design thinking, strategic philanthropy and behavioral sciences and published The Philanthropy Toolkit. Trained as an classroom teacher and educator, she is inspired to bring more learning to the philanthropic sector and transform funding practices to invest more systemically.
She started her career in the humanitarian sector, philanthropy and higher education in different parts of Asia--Hong Kong, eastern Tibet, the Thai-Burma border, and Bangladesh. While in Hong Kong, she advised Fortune 500 companies and private foundations to meet their philanthropic goals in Asia-Pacific and also worked in the international affairs office at the University of Hong Kong.
She earned a Master of Education (Ed.M.) in International Education Policy from Harvard University and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Development from UCLA.
"A light bulb turned on when I heard in a School workshop, "learning doesn’t come after strategy, learning IS the strategy.""
