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Hannah Joy Sachs is the US National Director for Humanity in Action. Prior to this role, she served as the Communications and Community Manager for Humanity in Action, Inc. in 2021 and as the Berlin Fellowship Program Coordinator in 2020. Hannah is also a Senior Fellow (Berlin Fellowship 2018, which she reflected on here).
Hannah was adopted from China and raised in a white Jewish family in the suburbs of New York City. Her upbringing inspired her to research racial and cultural identity development within the transracial transnational Asian American adoptee community, first studying Sociology at Davidson College and then completing an MSc in Migration Studies from University of Oxford.
Hannah is passionate about experiential education. Before joining Humanity in Action full-time, Hannah was a program leader and course instructor on immersive programs for high school, college, and GAP year students across Asia and North America. Courses she has led include studying visions of democracy in Myanmar; learning about conservation efforts in Indonesia; tracing rural to urban migration patterns in Thailand and China; and exploring racial dynamics and food inequality post-Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, USA. Though the pandemic has altered what student travel looks like, Hannah has remained engaged by leading short-term programs with organizations including Where There Be Dragons and Putney Student Travel.
Outside of work, Hannah is a horseback rider and loves volunteering with Pegasus Therapeutic Riding Center whenever she has the chance. Additionally, Hannah is engaged in activist work within the North American Jewish community, working to amplify the voices of Jews of Color. She also remains involved in Chinese American adoptee networks.
Updated February 2022