Kristen Haggins has spent her over 25 year career in service to her community, from private consulting to nonprofit, philanthropic and local government clients, to leadership at the statewide level. She currently serves as Senior Program Officer at a Private Foundation based in Los Angeles that awards grants throughout the Southern California area. For 15 years Kristen served with the Federal government as the State Director of the California Office of the Corporation for National and Community Service, where she oversaw program administration and grantmaking of over $13 million in government resources. She served as a State Commissioner on the Governor’s Commission on Service and Volunteerism and as a Commissioner on the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission. She also directed a statewide African American census outreach initiative called Check the BLACK Box, funded entirely by The California Endowment. In the 1990s Kristen served as the Executive Director of Building Up Los Angeles—a collaboration of over 60 community-based organizations, universities and health care providers that was formed in the wake of the Los Angeles riots to combat educational, public safety and health inequities throughout Los Angeles. Kristen began her professional career as the Director of the City of Los Angeles Volunteer and Internship Program.
Kristen received a B.A. in Sociology and a M.A. in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. A native of Pasadena, Kristen has recently returned home to her Northwest Pasadena neighborhood where she currently resides with her husband, a LAUSD Teacher.
