Protected: Hala Harik Hayes

Hala Harik Hayes is a consultant who specializes in civic and community engagement strategy. She is an expert in project management, public meeting design, and facilitation with more than twenty years of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors.

Hayes worked in the Executive Office of District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There, she learned community engagement from the ground up and acquired real-world experience connecting community input to public policy. From 2004 to 2009, she organized civic engagement projects around the country with AmericaSpeaks, a D.C.-based nonprofit. These community engagement campaigns took on different forms, but all shared a basic goal: to bring people—ranging from stakeholders, constituents, and residents—into conversations on policy issues to inform decisions and to provide community buy-in and support on potentially contentious issues.  

An independent consultant since 2010, Hayes has provided guidance and leadership to a range of organizations seeking to develop expertise in community engagement. Hayes holds a master’s degree in public administration from American University’s School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University.