Chapin Hall

Lydia Stazen is the Director of Policy Operations at Chapin Hall. In this role, she provides executive leadership to the policy team and oversees day-to-day operations related to Chapin Hall’s policy portfolio. Stazen is a globally recognized leader and subject matter expert with two decades of experience across policy organizations, public-private partnerships, and university systems. She is widely regarded for her strengths in strategy, stakeholder engagement, cross-sector collaboration, policy and systems change, and business development.

Prior to joining Chapin Hall, Stazen served as the Executive Director of the Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness, where she partnered with multi-lateral institutions, governments, and community-based organizations around the world to apply evidence-based policies and practices to prevent and reduce homelessness. During her tenure, IGH secured the first-ever United Nations (UN) policy resolutions and reports on homelessness, conducted an independent evaluation of its global place-based homelessness initiative, and significantly scaled its technical cooperation partnerships. Stazen has served in executive leadership roles at the City Colleges of Chicago, All Chicago Making Homelessness History, and Women Employed. In these roles, she led multi-million dollar business development efforts, expanded and strengthened community partnerships, spearheaded collaborative policy coalitions, and restructured internal operational systems to increase efficiency and impact.

Stazen has a Master’s in Public Policy from DePaul University and a Bachelor’s in Communication / Public Relations from Dordt University.