Helen Hayes

Helen has been working in the charter schools arena for over two decades. She taught at a classical school before founding and leading the second school in the Great Hearts classical-school network. Later, as Vice President of Academies, she was responsible for hiring, training, and evaluating school headmasters. During that time, she also oversaw the Great Hearts special education, college counseling, and co-curricular programs for the network of schools as well as data collection, analysis, and reporting. Helen developed one in-person and two online programs for leadership cultivation at Great Hearts. Finally, as Vice President of New-Region Growth, she led and facilitated charter and CSP applications, site searches and plans, and leadership searches and reviews for two new states.

Helen has worked with private schools in Arizona and is well acquainted with laws and logistics related to empowerment scholarships (ESA) and school tuition organizations (STO). She is deeply acquainted with federal grant processes, including the Charter Schools Program grants and the TRIO program, having served as both an applicant/administrator and a reviewer for the Arizona State Board of Charter Schools and the US Department of Education. She has been directly involved in successful applications for over $27 million from private foundations.

Helen has an M.Ed. in Curriculum/Instruction/ABA from Arizona State University, an MFA in Creative Writing (ASU), and a BA in philosophy from Yale University. She has a Harvard School Leader Certificate and a certificate in school network leadership from Stanford EdLeadership.