Rosa Maria Castañeda

Blue circle with lighter lines going through it

Director, Programs

As a Director at the Omidyar Network, Rosa Maria leads the firm’s program-wide efforts to create a more inclusive and equitable future through our strategies and partnerships.

Before joining Omidyar Network, Rosa Maria was the Racial Justice Initiative Director at William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Prior to that, at Annie E. Casey Foundation, she seeded one of the largest state and federal campaigns with racial equity and policy advocacy groups to successfully reverse anti-immigrant policy. While there, Rosa Maria shifted the foundation’s investments to advance economic mobility in southern states. She began her career in philanthropy at Pew Charitable Trusts after a decade developing actionable policy research to tackle economic and racial inequality at the Urban Institute, Center for Law and Social Policy and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Rosa Maria has a unique leadership record of driving impact toward racial justice and economic opportunity at four of the nation’s leading philanthropic ventures. She has deep experience designing major philanthropic initiatives bridging advocacy, mobilization and policy development. As a manager, she enjoys building effective and empowered teams in service of a bold strategic agenda. A child refugee to the US, she is motivated to reimagine philanthropy, government and business to realize the promise of a just multiracial democracy.

Rosa Maria holds a Masters in Public Policy from the George Washington University, a Masters of Science in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and received her Bachelor of Arts from American University.