INNOVATION | ENTREPRENEURSHIP | LEADERSHIP
EMERGING LEADER
AWARD
The Emerging Leader Award honors an individual within an organization who has furthered advances in behavioral and mental health, education, or economic revitalization through their current work, whether research-based or project/program-based.
2025 Emerging Leader Award Recipients
Michelle Haley
Position: Executive Director, Children and Family Division
Haley​​ leads a $17M child welfare program with 200+ staff, having demonstrated innovation through restructuring foster care services, opening seven new programs in 18 months, integrating peer support models, achieving financial sustainability, and collaborating on statewide policy improvements while seeking continued leadership development.
Lauren Johnston
Position: Philadelphia Site Manager
Johnston coaches staff and volunteers across 5 counties in Philadelphia, demonstrating exceptional leadership through emotional intelligence and strategic vision that bridges high-level planning with grassroots implementation, while driving community impact through initiatives like anti-drug violence coalitions and Black-led wellness programs.
Kyle Lafferty
Position: Director of People Power
Lafferty regularly hires hundreds of coach-mentors and managing all HR functions while demonstrating authentic leadership through crisis management, equitable hiring practices, and staff development that maintains cultural identity and drives organizational transformation in service of youth empowerment and community impact.
Kelly Laysears
Position: Program Director, Aftercare Evening Reporting Center
Laysears leads a multidisciplinary team serving court-involved youth, having transformed AERC into a trauma-informed, evidence-based program that promotes healing and accountability while collaborating with juvenile probation, DHS, and community providers to improve outcomes through both quantitative metrics and qualitative relationship-building approaches.