The Philadelphia-based Stoneleigh Foundation hired a new executive director, Ronnie L. Bloom, who began the position last week.

The former executive director, Cathy Weiss, led the foundation for four years. She announced her intention to step down in December 2013. Generocity did a Q&A with Weiss just prior to the announcement, which contains more details about the foundation’s history, current initiatives and plans for the future.

Ronnie L. Bloom, executive director of the Stoneleigh Foundation

Bloom was a program director for the William Penn Foundation for 13 years, during which time she managed charitable giving in the areas of early care and education, youth development and nonprofit capacity building.  She also served as a board member for the Stoneleigh Foundation. Prior to her work with foundations, she was a family law attorney.

Weiss is currently working alongside Bloom to help with the transition.

The Stoneleigh Foundation was founded in 2006 by the late John and Chara Haas after they decided to devote their personal estate to helping under-served youth. The husband and wife also served on the board of the William Penn Foundation — founded by John’s parents in 1946 — for 33 years. John Haas also founded the Wyncote Foundation.

Named after the Haas family estate in Villanova, the Stoneleigh Foundation uses fellowship programs to fund the work of innovators in child welfare and juvenile justice, mostly by paying for salaries over the span of one to five years. Much of this work has focused on preventing youth violence. More information on past and current fellows is available here.

As Weiss said in a Q&A with Generocity: “Violence isn’t political; it is something that has endured and if something is working well, the next administration needs to pick it up.”