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Sarah Tinsley Demarest is Vice President and Deputy of Membership, Marketing and Communications at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
In this position, Demarest directs the daily operations of the public affairs team, providing communications strategy and counsel on MBA residential and commercial/multifamily public policy positions. She is responsible for managing industry messages to advance and promote the association's regulatory and legislative agendas.
Before joining MBA in 2007, Demarest served four years in the U.S. Department of State first as Senior Adviser to the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security and later as Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
While at State, she served as a principal adviser on national security matters, policy development, communications and executive planning. Demarest also represented the Ambassador at senior level meetings in the White House, National Security Council and Congress. In addition, she acted as a spokesperson for the Ambassador before national and international audiences and media.
Prior to the State Department, Demarest served as Deputy Director and Director of Worldwide Programs at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and as Deputy Assistant Administrator of the External Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). At USAID, Demarest directed all public affairs and external liaison offices and programs for the U.S. government's $6.5 billion foreign assistance program. Demarest began her career on Capitol Hill serving as a legislative assistant to then Representative Bill Gradison on the Ways and Means Committee and former Senator John Heinz.
Demarest is a founding board member of the International Women's Media Foundation and a former board chairman of the International Center for Research on Women.
Demarest has a master's degree in business administration from Dominican University of California and a bachelor's degree in American studies from Skidmore College.
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