Lydia Stazen

Lydia Stazen is the executive director of Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH), where she oversees global homeless policy development and advocacy, a cohort of cities addressing homelessness, and knowledge-sharing activities that communicate what works (and what doesn’t) to end homelessness. 

Stazen has worked at the intersections of housing, homelessness, employment, higher education, gender equity, and policy advocacy for nearly 20 years. She previously served as Vice Chancellor of Institutional Advancement at the City Colleges of Chicago. While there, she served on the internal research team exploring basic needs insecurity. 60% of City College students who took the survey were experiencing food and housing insecurity. Stazen used this learning to drive a college-system-wide response for students experiencing homelessness. 

Stazen also served for several years as vice president of All Chicago Making Homelessness History, where she helped integrate homeless and medical data to help patients experiencing homelessness access both housing and healthcare services. 

Stazen is a founding editorial Board Member of the International Journal on Homelessness and an international speaker on housing and homelessness in global forums. She also currently serves as chair of the United Nations NGO Working Group to End Homelessness. She holds a master’s degree in public policy.