Kristen Hayes is a Federal grants administration expert with 10 years experience in program implementation and public policy formation.  She has worked with organizations across the country to secure grant funding through two Federal departments, and helped grantees effectively utilize funds to meet required outcomes.  She is an advocate for high-quality programming for children and families, and passionate about supporting local organizations in carrying out their vision.

Most recently, Kristen was a Senior Program Specialist with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Head Start (OHS), Region IX in San Francisco, California.  Kristen managed funding to Head Start agencies in excess of $400 million annually, and provided expert technical assistance and guidance to grantee organizations.  Her caseload included non-profits, city and county governments, county offices of education, and a for-profit organization, reflecting the diversity of organizations funded by ACF.  Kristen supported ACF’s ongoing quality improvement efforts as a team leader for onsite compliance reviews, and as Region IX’s staff lead for monitoring and risk assessment.

Prior to joining ACF, Kristen was a Policy Analyst with the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, in Washington, DC.  She lead the policy effort to implement a school choice provision under No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which included authoring regulations, guidance, and debriefing the Secretary’s NCLB Implementation Council.  She was heavily involved in the Office’s annual discretionary grant process, serving as a panel manager for the peer review of seven national grant competitions and co-developing a grant competition to improve state-level management of school drug and violence prevention data.  While working at ED, Kristen was selected for a three month assignment to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the staff of Senator Edward Kennedy

Kristen volunteers as the Foundations and Grants Consultant for Healthy Child Healthy World (www.healthychild.org), a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization that expands awareness of environmental impacts on children’s health through outreach, advocacy, and education.  In her role, Kristen researches possible funders and develops proposals for foundation consideration.