Betsy Bassan

Betsy Bassan has held a variety of leadership positions with SID-Washington (now SID-United States) and was President of the organization from August 2007 to August 2010. In December 2010, she founded the Panagora Group, a small, woman-owned business focused on providing novel and integrated solutions in health and development. Previously, she was a senior vice president at Chemonics International, where she led the creation of two successful startup divisions, the Europe and Eurasia division and the International Health Group. She is a development planner and senior management specialist with 25 years of experience designing and managing development activities across a broad array of technical areas and geographic regions. Her sector experience includes health, private sector development, environment, democracy/governance, and PVO/NGO development. Her regional experience includes Europe and Eurasia, Middle East and Africa. She served as project director for a major USAID initiative to increase PVO/NGO capacity in family planning, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS and to provide services through networks. She has lived and worked in Kenya and Sudan carrying out numerous consultancies and long-term assignments for a wide range of organizations in strategic planning, activity design, project management, and institutional development. She holds a B.A. from St. John’s College’s Great Books Program and a master’s degree from Columbia University where she completed a joint degree program (Planning in Developing Nations) in the School of International Affairs and the Division of Urban Planning.