Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary of the Board of Trustees
Behnaz Raufi serves as the chief of staff to the president and assistant secretary to the Board of Trustees. In this capacity, Behnaz is responsible for overseeing and coordinating administrative and strategic functions, playing a crucial role in supporting the president and assisting with board-related responsibilities.
Before assuming her current role, Behnaz served as a program director at the Foundation. In this capacity, she offered vital support to the senior vice president of Programs for overseeing and managing the Foundation’s programmatic initiatives. Her responsibilities included managing the Foundation’s institutional partnership with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, supporting the Foundation’s annual planning process, contributing to the development of country strategic plans, and assisting in institutional-level strategic planning and implementation.
Before joining the Foundation, Behnaz worked at the World Bank and the Institute for South Asia Studies at UC Berkeley.
Education: Behnaz Raufi earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in International Development Practice from Georgetown University.