The following staff were part of the final months of the Foundation spend down from 2019 through 2024.
LORI BEZAHLER – President
As President of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, Lori Bezahler leads a national grant making program supporting organizing and leadership by young people and communities of color to dismantle structural inequity based on race and class. During 2013, Ms. Bezahler was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion and she currently chairs the board of Race Forward. Her writing and commentary have appeared in The Nation, TIME Magazine, the Washington Post, Foundation Review, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Journal of Responsive Philanthropy, and on numerous blogs and other media outlets. With over 20 years’ experience as a leader in the not for profit sector, she has served on several boards including Grantmakers for Education, the National Center on Schools and Communities at Fordham University, Philanthropy New York, and the Center for Community Alternatives, and has taught as an adjunct assistant professor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.
SARA HOUSTON – Accounting Manager
Sara has served as the Hazen Foundation Accounting Manager since 2013. Sara is a member of the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers.
ROSIO SANTOS CASTELAN – Program Associate
Rosio is the Program Associate for the Edward W. Hazen Foundation. She has previously worked with CARA, College Access: Research & Action, with the goal to help high school seniors navigate the college enrollment and acceptance processes. She has participated in youth discussions addressing racial and educational inequalities, resources available to DACA recipients and undocumented students. Rosio holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science from Hunter College.
HANA SUN – Interim Program Officer 2023-2024
Hana Sun was the the Interim Program Officer at the Hazen Foundation during the final grant year of 2023. Hana has 15 years of experience in facilitation, curriculum design, community education, and organizational leadership. Her background is in gender justice, community technology, and youth development. Hana’s previous roles include serving as executive director of the now-sunset youth media organizing group, Global Action Project; co-chairing the board of the grassroots, gender justice-focused Third Wave Fund; managing digital equity programming at Mozilla Foundation; and teaching preschool in Hawaii Public Schools. She has a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Social Work and a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Dance Studies from Smith College.
ISABEL SOUSA-RODRIGUEZ – Program Officer 2019-2022
Isabel was the former Program Officer at the Hazen Foundation from 2019-2022. Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez was born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to New York from Florida. Prior to joining Hazen, Isabel was the Director of Membership and Organizing at the Florida Immigrant Coalition. In 2010, Isabel was one of the founders of the national Trail of Dreams, walking with other students and families 1,500 miles from Miami to D.C., a mobilization that was instrumental in the negotiations with the Obama administration for the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) that has protected over 700,000 undocumented youth from deportation since 2012. In Academia, Isabel earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of South Florida and then attended the City University of New York Graduate Center where she published academic articles detailing the effects of legal status and marginalization on undocumented mothers, their families, and adolescents. While in graduate school, Isabel was the state coordinator of New York’s Mexican Initiative on Deferred Action that provided legal aid consultations to thousands of immigrant youth and their parents across NY state. She has also played leadership roles in the Trans Justice Funding Project, DREAM.US Undocumented Youth Scholarship Fund, Miami Worker’s Center, Unite for a Fair Economy, and Central Florida Jobs With Justice.