Sara Fenske Bahat

Sara Fenske Bahat is a cultural and civic leader with two decades of experience spanning government, finance, the arts, and academia. Early in her career, she worked in New York City government during the wake of 9/11, an experience that proved formative in shaping her commitment to civic life and the power of cross-sector collaboration. Since then, she has been called on to provide strategic leadership during times of change — guiding institutions through recovery, modernization, and reinvention.

She recently directed the first mayoral transition in San Francisco since 1996, leading a 62-day process that aligned more than 70 city departments, created new policy and operational frameworks, and raised $6 million in private and in-kind support forging some of the strongest ethical standards in the country.

Prior to the transition, she served as board chair and later CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, guiding the downtown anchor institution through the pandemic and overseeing the nation’s first guaranteed income program for artists — a pilot that has since influenced similar efforts nationwide. Before YBCA she led the MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts, an innovative curriculum at the intersection of business, design, and social impact and the first of its kind, resident at a college of art and design.

Other leadership roles have included Chief of Staff at the New York State Banking Department, where she led a sweeping modernization of the state’s $80 million regulator, and at Citigroup, where she supported the CFO/COO and global business heads through cross-business strategy, restructuring, and major transactions.

A Presidential Leadership Scholar (2022), she is a regular advisor to boards and civic organizations during periods of transition and strategic planning. Her writing and commentary have appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review and San Francisco Chronicle. Across all, she has focused on how local innovations can scale into national strategies for strengthening democracy, belonging, and civic trust.