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Weinberg Foundation VP Marisa Hayase on Impact and Leadership
July 18, 2025

Fellows mentioned in this story: Marisa Hayase

From Aloha State Daily:

In late April, Marisa Castuera Hayase was tapped to lead The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation’s $150 million in annual grantmaking efforts that support nonprofits in the U.S. and Israel. As vice president of programs, she will ensure the foundation continues to improve housing stability, health, employment and educational opportunities, and aging.

“Our main focus is that we need to address poverty together as a community across sectors and make our communities stronger,” she told Aloha State Daily. “It's a big job, but we're not doing it alone. We have amazing community leaders to follow and … and we also have fabulous partners that have been working on these issues for a really long time, who all bring a lot of expertise to the table.”

Hayase added, “I think that the opportunity and the privilege we have is to help coordinate and plug into those efforts; help convene people, help to celebrate and uplift what's working in [those focus areas]; and also connect people across priority communities that we work in … It's a great landscape view to have, and we're really lucky because we get to be inspired every day by all of the good work we see.”

Continue reading at alohastatedaily.com.


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