Sarah M. Beran

Sarah M. Beran, a career foreign service officer, serves as special assistant to the president and senior director for China and Taiwan affairs on the National Security Council staff at the White House. Prior to this assignment, she served in the office of the secretary of state as deputy executive secretary. She also previously served as the director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP/CM), overseeing a team of 35 desk officers covering China, Hong Kong and Mongolia policy. She has also served overseas in Beijing, Islamabad, Jerusalem and Quito. Her previous domestic assignments include office director for economic policy in EAP, special assistant to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Lebanon desk officer. She speaks Mandarin, Arabic and Spanish, and she joined the Foreign Service in 2002. Beran graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1999 and is a native of Washington State.