Nicholas Hayes is the engagement manager at Criterion Institute. Raised a Liberation Theology Catholic by a Costa Rican mother in the unlikely setting of rural Michigan, Nicholas understands his Christian faith as the source of his lifelong commitment to transforming the economy, caring for Creation, and enabling ordinary people to discover their own power.
Nicholas’s vocation and developing career center on the transformative potential of faith communities for social change. Graduating summa cum laude from Harvard in 2008, Nicholas spent two years as a Fellow with Life Together, the Boston Episcopal Service Corps program. From 2011-2014, he completed an M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School, focusing his studies on social ethics, political theology, and the history of faith-based organizing. Along the way, he began his continuing engagement as a coach and trainer for the Leading Change Network and the Leadership Development Initiative. Through teaching public narrative and community organizing to both grassroots congregations and experienced leaders from across many sectors, he works to further unlock their potential as change agents.
From 2013-2014, Nicholas was Faith Community Partnerships organizer at the New Economy Coalition, a collaborative network of 130 diverse organizations committed to economic systems change. In 2014, he also opened an ordination process in the Episcopal Church. He begins his time as engagement manager with great excitement about Criterion’s work and eagerness to learn from it.