Program Consultant, Japan
srossitto@give2asia.org
Sarajean Rossitto, a Tokyo-based nonprofit NGO consultant, facilitates workshops and projects aimed at developing skills, organizational capacity, effective partnerships and international understanding. Since 2005 she has worked independently on a project basis, while also serving as the Tokyo representative for a number of US-Japan nonprofit projects including International Global Internships and the Japan Women’s Leadership Initiative. Since March 2011, Sarajean has served as the Give2Asia program officer and grants adviser for the Tohoku disaster recovery fund.
Sarajean has run workshops and training seminars at a number of institutions including JICA International Training Center, the Japan Foundation, Japanese Society for the Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities, The Japan Foundation for AIDS Prevention, Temple University Japan Campus’s NGO management certificate program, and Tsuda International Training Program. She is also a regular guest speaker on nonprofit and NGOs issues at universities and international chambers of commerce in Japan.
Sarajean has also worked on projects with a wide range of local organizations including Tokyo English Life Line, Asia Initiatives Japan, Animal Refuge Kansai, JEN, Palette while also supporting the development of corporate community engagement programs for companies such as Morgan Stanley in Tokyo.
Before working independently, Sarajean spent 4 years coordinating bilateral exchange of community-based activists between the US and Japan for Japan-US Community Education and Exchange (JUCEE) where she worked with a wide array of nonprofit organizations throughout Japan and the US.
Sarajean holds a Columbia University Masters of International Affairs degree with a focus on human rights in East Asia. Prior to her graduate studies, she spent 6 years working at the Tokyo YMCA. She spent the 1980s both as a student and community organizer, traveling the state of NY organizing lobby visits, press conferences and grassroots trainings. For her BA in Sociology at the State University of NY College at Purchase, Sarajean focused her undergraduate studies on social movements and the role of youth in social change.