Fall Greetings from Park Foundation
As the seasons change, so too does Park Foundation. After a robust search, we are delighted to welcome three new team members to our Foundation to help ensure we have capacity to meet our mission in supporting priority program areas, managing the lifecycle of grants, and strengthening the organization for the future.
Below are their bios. They look forward to interacting with the communities and grantees we serve. Please join us in offering a warm welcome to these talented new members of the Park Foundation team.
Suzanne del Rosario, Program Officer-Democracy and Civic Participation
Suzanne del Rosario is the Program Officer for Civic Participation & Democracy at the Park Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Suzanne spent six years at Grassroots Solutions, an engagement strategy and evaluation firm, most recently as Senior Project Manager. There, she worked across both practices, managing strategy and campaign design as well as program and strategy evaluation for multi-stakeholder initiatives in democracy, voting rights, and gender equity. Her work included managing a voter contact evaluation that informed roughly $250 million in funder investment and a pro-voter coalition. Before that, she was an Outreach Paralegal with the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Atlanta, where she investigated conditions at immigration detention centers and built relationships with grassroots organizations across the Southeast. Beyond her professional work, Suzanne co-founded Third Spxces, an event series that designs intentional, culturally grounded gatherings that build pathways from belonging to collective action. She holds B.A.s in Public Policy & Law and Human Rights from Trinity College and is fluent in American Sign Language and Spanish.
Frida Hatami, Grants Manager
Frida Hatami, Grants Officer at Park Foundation. Frida is a grants management professional with more than 20 years of experience in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Throughout her career, she has helped foundations strengthen their grantmaking by streamlining processes, building practical grants management systems, and developing tools that support thoughtful decision-making and effective stewardship. Before joining Park Foundation, Frida served as Senior Grants Manager at the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, where she oversaw the full lifecycle of grantmaking and supported a range of funding strategies. Earlier in her career, she held grantmaking and program roles at the Annenberg Foundation and The California Endowment and worked in community-based human services with Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. Frida believes philanthropy is more than making grants; it is about building lasting relationships, listening to communities, and creating processes that enable foundations and grantee partners to do their best work.
Sierra Coathup, Executive Assistant
Sierra Coathup is the Executive Assistant for the Park Foundation. She coordinates scheduling, communications, and assists with organizational needs as they arise. Sierra grew up in both Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and San Francisco, CA. She moved to Ithaca in 2021 to work as a location manager for the employee-owned cooperative, Gimme! Coffee. Following that, she managed the volunteer program for the Sciencenter, a nationally recognized hands-on children’s science museum. With volunteerism at the cornerstone of Sciencenter’s history, Sierra takes pride in having doubled the program’s size. She also mentored and worked alongside community STEM experts to expand their science communication skills with public audiences. Her work in this role involved extensive scheduling, logistic management, and event coordination. She finds her work most fulfilling when she can work behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), with concentrations in watershed management and informal education. When she’s not at work, she can be found paddling with the Ithaca Dragon Boat Club or sitting on her porch knitting while drinking a cup of coffee.