Shoshana Akabas Barzel (’06) is the founder and executive director of New Neighbors Partnership, a non-profit that welcomes refugee families by matching them with local families who have slightly older kids and can provide an ongoing source of hand-me-down clothes and other forms of support during the resettlement process. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, and elsewhere.

Shoshana graduated from Schechter Manhattan in 2006, attended Stuyvesant High School and holds a BA in English and organic chemistry from Penn. She earned her Master’s in Fine Arts from Columbia University where she taught for several years before founding New Neighbors Partnership.

A lifelong New Yorker, Shoshana lives with her husband on the Upper West Side.