Our Team

Shaheen Hasan serves as the Managing Director of Grantmaking and Programs at The Solutions Project, where she leads all grantmaking, working closely with philanthropic partners, external stakeholders, and grantees.

With a deep commitment to economic and racial justice, Shaheen recognizes that low-wealth and BIPOC communities disproportionately impacted by climate change and other inequities hold powerful solutions to address multiple and intersecting political, economic and climate crises. She has spent over 13 years leading and supporting efforts to transform our economy and financial systems to enable shared prosperity, self-determination, and well-being by investing resources in and strengthening the capacities and power of workers and communities of color. She is guided by a vision for philanthropy which plays an active role in building a thriving, regenerative and just world by redistributing wealth, democratizing power and shifting economic control to communities.

More recently, she was a Senior Program Officer at the Target Foundation, where she launched a national portfolio focused on closing the racial wealth gap, exploring the intersection between climate and economic justice, and advancing equitable community development by reinvesting resources into community-led efforts, including cooperative, community and worker-owned projects. Her portfolio also invested in racial justice and movement infrastructure and capacity building.

Prior to grantmaking, she held programmatic and research roles at organizations focused on community development and expanding equitable access to finance in the U.S. and globally, including at the Financial Health Network, Accion International, the Clinton Global Initiative and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability. She started her social justice journey interning at organizations, such as South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) NY advocating for the civic engagement and power-building of South Asian, Muslim and immigrant communities in New York in the wake of 9/11 and the “war on terror.”

Shaheen is a lifelong learner, spiritual wayfarer, avid wander luster, voracious reader/podcast junkie and foodie. She is the daughter of Muslim-Indian American immigrants and was raised in Brooklyn, NY.

She holds a Masters in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs, focusing on Economic and Political development at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing with a minor in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

After 8 years working on grants for an international non-profit, Caroleena (Caro) is excited to bring her experience to The Solutions Project as the Grantmaking Manager. Caro worked with the Food Systems and Climate Change teams at Oxfam America where she was getting grants out to partners around the globe. Caro was inspired by all the voices making an impact around the world on climate change, food justice and gender justice.  

Before starting her work in the international non-profit space, Caro started her journey with Year Up Providence in the career services department supporting BIPOC youth from 18 - 24. During her time there she saw how important it was to see her peers, family and community members occupy voice and space across many sectors. She wants to continue to work in spaces where BIPOC people are supported and seen.  

Caro currently lives in Providence, RI where she grew up and attended the University of Rhode Island. Caro loves spending time with those closest to her, helping her friends however she can, getting in a good hike, and always enjoying food with some good music. 

Sara Telzer is the Development Director at The Solutions Project (TSP). Over the past decade and half, Sara has honed her skills, experiences, and passions into a deep passion for advancing racial, environmental, and climate justice, and a love for leveraging philanthropy to create lasting and systemic change. Sara is deeply inspired by a vision for a world that is just, regenerative, and resilient – a future where everyone can thrive. She believes that women on the frontlines of the climate crisis, especially women of color, hold the keys to solving it. She is honored to have joined TSP’s incredible, all women-led team of change makers. 

Sara comes to TSP from Ecotrust, an organization similarly working at the intersection of equity, economy, and environment and toward a vision of an equitable, prosperous, and climate-smart future. There, she acted as the Director of Grants and Funder Impact and oversaw the organization’s institutional and government development strategies. Previously she was the Director of Grants, Impact and Evaluation for a nonprofit regenerative farm and environmental education center where she helped grow the organization from a pilot project into a high impact operation. She also led hands-on programming at a regenerative ranch and bison conservation operation for the Nature Conservancy, ran global corporate volunteer programs for Grameen Foundation’s Bankers without Borders program, and supported youth social entrepreneurship while at Ashoka’s Youth Venture. 

Sara is based in Portland, OR. In her time, she finds joy in wondering the forests of the Pacific Northwest, making beautiful things at the pottery studio, learning to silversmith, paddle boarding with her dog Zucchini, exploring Portland’s local farm scene, and enjoying great food and good music with friends and family.

George is the Executive Director of National People’s Action, a network of metropolitan and statewide membership organizations dedicated to advancing economic and racial justice in all aspects of society. George began his career as the founding president of the Coalition of Low-Income and Homeless Citizens. In 1996, he began working with the National People’s Action, and designed a national campaign to pressure HUD to address fraud and abuse within the FHA home loan program. As a result of three years of work on the issue, the Credit Watch Program was established to hold lenders accountable for excessive defaults on FHA-insured mortgages. George then became an organizing director and supervised an effort that forced statewide anti-predatory lending regulations and legislation in Illinois.

In addition, George works as a strategist and field organizer with the Center for Community Change where he has launched a national summit of immigrant and allied organizations from more than 30 states, resulting in establishing the national “Stop the Raids” movement, in response to a wave of immigration raids that separated young children from their parents.

He most recently starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series “I Know This Much Is True,” which garnered him an Emmy win for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series.” He executive produced and stars in the series playing the two main characters. In the last year, he was also seen in Focus Features’ Dark Waters about the DuPont Pollution scandal. He is probably best known for his role as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the Avengers and Thor series and has been nominated for three Academy Awards within five years for his performances in “The Kids Are All Right,” “Foxcatcher” and “Spotlight,” which won the Oscars® for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Ruffalo received a Golden Globe® nomination in 2015 for his role in the Sony Pictures Classics film “Infinitely Polar Bear.” He also received a Screen Actors Guild® Award, as well as Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominations, for his role as gay rights activist Ned Weeks in the HBO film “The Normal Heart,” based on the play by Larry Kramer.

Ruffalo advocates for addressing climate change and increasing renewable energy. A regular contributor to the Guardian and Huffington Post, Ruffalo has received the Global Green Millennium Award for Environmental Leadership and the Meera Gandhi Giving Back Foundation Award. He was named one of Time Magazine’s People Who Mattered in 2011 and received The Big Fish Award from Riverkeeper in 2013. He received the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Artists Inspiration Award in 2019 for using his creative and professional success as a performing artist to advance philanthropic and humanitarian causes, most notably for his work with The Solutions Project to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy and equitable access to healthy air, water, and soils by supporting climate justice organizations, especially those led by women of color.

“I am guided by a deep passion for social, economic and climate justice for underrepresented communities. Supporting place-based innovation and helping build the field of climate resilience is an honor.”

Shamar Bibbins serves as a senior program officer for Environment at The Kresge Foundation, where her grantmaking supports policies and programs that help communities build resilience in the face of climate change. Shamar plays a lead role managing Kresge’s Climate Change, Health & Equity Initiative (CCHE). The national initiative is a partnership between Kresge’s Environment and Health programs to address the intersecting imperatives of accelerating action on climate change and reducing health disparities. She also contributes to the development and implementation of program strategies and supports efforts that advance diversity, racial equity, and inclusion in the environmental field. “I am guided by a deep passion for social, economic and climate justice for underrepresented communities,” Shamar says. “Supporting place-based innovation and helping build the field of climate resilience is an honor.”

Shamar joined Kresge in 2014, bringing a history of engagement in environmental efforts and a commitment to action on climate change. She previously served as the director of national partnerships at Green For All, a national nonprofit dedicated to building a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Shamar earned a bachelor’s degree in science, technology and society from Vassar College and received a Fulbright Fellowship to Fukushima University where she conducted research on environmental social movements in Japan.

Miya has an extensive background in community organizing, campaign strategy, leadership development and training, organizational development, and fundraising, and a long history of working in the environmental justice movement. In her twenties she was the executive director of the largest student environmental network in the US, the Student Environmental Action Coalition, SEAC, and worked broadly in international environment and development networks organizing for environmental and economic justice. Miya was a participant in the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, and was on the drafting committee of the original Principles of Environmental Justice, a defining document for the environmental justice movement.

Miya first joined the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) staff in the mid-90’s as a youth organizer, and has served as lead organizer, development director and spearheaded APEN’s strategic planning. APEN has been fighting – and winning – environmental justice struggles for the past 18 years and remains one of the most unique organizations in the country explicitly developing the leadership and power of low-income Asian American immigrant and refugee communities. APEN has been a trailblazer in bringing the voices of APA communities to the forefront of environmental health and social justice fights in the Bay Area, winning real policy solutions for the community across a gamut of issues including occupational safety of high-tech workers, affordable housing, transportation and land-use, and challenging multinational corporations to mitigate pollution that is devastating the health and well-being of countless low-income communities of color.