Sarah Bearup

Sarah Bearup is a global humanitarian and development leader with deep expertise in protecting the most vulnerable, especially survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and egregious human rights violations. Having lived in Oceania, South East Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Sarah has worked at the intersection of humanitarian and development programming and led emergency responses to natural disasters and crises including the Western Balkans Refugee Response.

Sarah’s executive roles have included: Assistant Director (Humanitarian Policy) for the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade. National Director of World Vision Bosnia-Herzegovina; Country Director of Hagar International/Cambodia; Executive Director of Positive Women; and Landmines & Disability Program Manager. Sarah’s current role as a Diplomat with the Australian Embassy in Amman Jordan includes oversight of Australia’s Syria Humanitarian Program, which responds to the complex displacement issues resulting from a decade-long protracted crisis.

Sarah has deep domain expertise in protection and inclusion, specifically SGBV, child protection and disability inclusion. Sarah studied at Monash, Deakin and Stanford Universities, the latter awarding a Certificate in Not-for-profit Executive Leadership. She has held various board roles including as a Non-Executive Director of Vision Fund International (EKI, Bosnia-Herzegovina), Hagar Australia and Hagar Catering Social Enterprise.