Dr. Kathleen Hayes possesses significant experience, in-depth knowledge, and a career-long commitment to addressing the needs of vulnerable children as Director of the SC Department of Social Services. Dr. Hayes has dedicated her professional career to improving the wellbeing of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, especially at risk children – in child protective services, foster care, adoption, and to those in the custody of the juvenile justice system. One of her major priorities has been to prevent children in the child welfare system from languishing in foster care – to finding good adoptive homes, and to creating improved responsiveness for children involved in the child welfare system.
Dr. Hayes earned her doctorate in psychology with honors from the University of New Mexico. Following nine years as director of Adoption Services for the SC Department of Social Services, Dr. Hayes served as Director of SC Families for Kids, a national Kellogg Foundation initiative to reform practices that delayed permanency for abused and neglected children. Dr. Hayes then took the helm of the Nexuskids program, a joint initiative of the USC Children’s Law Center and the SC Department of Social Services. The goal of Nexuskids was to promote adoption, educational success and job readiness for abused children in South Carolina.
Continuing her efforts to improve the lives of vulnerable children, in 2003 she became Chief of Staff of the SC Department of Juvenile Justice. She served in that position until her appointment as State Director of the SC Department of Social Services in 2007.
As director of DSS, Dr. Hayes oversees an agency of 4400 employees which serves more than 800,000 citizens in South Carolina, with an annual budget of $1.2 billion. The DSS programs she supervises includes: child welfare services, including adoption, foster care, child protective services, family preservation and case management; adult protective services, protecting and maintaining the safety of vulnerable adults from abuse and financial exploitation; child support enforcement, including the establishing of child support orders, collection from non-custodial parents, paternity establishment and parent locate services; child care regulatory and licensing services; and temporary assistance to needy families in the form of SNAP benefits, and monetary assistance.
Dr. Hayes is a member or past member of many professional associations, such as the American Psychological Association; the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA); the American Corrections Association; and the South Carolina Workforce Improvement Board. She has held positions on the advisory boards of the Child Welfare League of America on adoption, and the National Center on Special Needs Adoptions. She is a life-long member of Sigma Xi, the National Honorary Research Society and enjoys writing articles and conducting presentations on behalf of vulnerable children.