Sara Walter

Sara Walter currently serves as the Acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) where she oversees the Office of Strategic and Program Planning (SPP), Office of Learning, Evaluation and Research (LER), and Program Office (PO). Sara Walter is a member of the Senior Foreign Service who has served USAID for nearly twenty years across four regions.

Prior to Liberia, Sara was the Deputy Mission Director for the USAID/Central Asia (CA) Regional Mission, managing 160 employees across four countries, in close collaboration with four US Embassy Country Teams. She provided strategic direction and oversight for bilateral programs and offices in five different locations: Almaty and Astana, Kazakhstan; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; and Uzbekistan; and regional programs covering the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also ensured quality executive office, legal, financial management and procurement services for the separate USAID/Kyrgyz Republic Mission.

Over her USAID career she served as the Program Office Director for USAID missions in Pakistan, Egypt, the Regional Development Mission for Asia in Thailand, in Mexico and as a Project Development Specialist in Honduras. She has designed and implemented programs in infrastructure, economic growth and agriculture, trade, central bank policy and operations, cash transfer/policy reform, municipal development, democracy and governance, and health.

Prior to joining USAID, Sara served as a consultant for World Bank, United Nations, and USAID projects specializing in business climate and trade. Before her work in development, she was a trader in foreign currencies, derivatives, and asset/liability management products for the Bank of Boston. She has an MBA from the Graduate School of Management of Simmons College in Boston, and a BA in Ancient History from the University of Kansas (KU).

Sara was raised on a farm in Kansas and is a staunch KU basketball fan looking forward to the college basketball season each year.