Hayes Hart-Thompson

Speaker, “Silly in the Summer: Near-Peer Led Career & Technical Community-Based Differentiated Learning and Research at IDEAcademy Boston” 

Hayes Hart-Thompson (they/them) is a graduate student in health and education geography at the University of Colorado Boulder and a Boston University alum with degrees in anthropology and film & television. They are a Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute of Behavioral Science, where their work examines how neighborhood built and social environments shape the lives of young people across the life course. Hayes is also the Executive Director of the Stateless Collective, a Boston-based nonprofit that expands access to innovation and career-focused education for minority youth and supports youth-led research in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Boston. Previously, they served as Director of Innovation Programming for Wayland Public Schools, where they taught courses in Innovation, Design Thinking, and Engineering while supporting district-wide curriculum development. Their public health experience includes coordinating the Public Health Excellence Grant at the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition, where they worked with six Greater Boston municipalities to advance health equity. Across these roles, Hayes has cultivated a passion for co-designing more just and accessible health and education systems with young people in their communities.