Hazel is a professional in strategic planning, project management, and team building. In 2006, she made a career change and began to passionately serve vulnerable children, out of the firm conviction that God's plan for children and adolescents is for them to live under the care of a safe and loving family.  

Hazel worked as the director of a residential care center for nine years and managed the transition of its services to family-based care. She was also director of social action at her church, where she was responsible for five government homes for children, the foster care program, the MetAMORfosis program (for adolescents in residential care and those aging out of the orphanage by reaching age 18), and a mentoring program for children and adolescents from the residential center.  

She has served as a member of the Board for the Protection of Children and Adolescents of PANI (the government child services agency of Costa Rica), and for more than twelve years, she was a board member of Casa Viva Costa Rica.  

Today, as director of Casa Viva Solutions for Latin America, Hazel seeks to motivate and equip governments, organizations, churches and various civil society groups that work with children and adolescents in vulnerable situations, so that they can implement family-based care solutions. 

Hazel is married and the mother of two daughters.