Kathleen Hayes

I'm a writer and journalist with deep subject matter expertise in education. My passion is illuminating the intersection of social injustices and public policy solutions.

 I've covered other topics, too: snack food trends and operating room purchasing issues, to name a few. 

Other areas of interest: Long-term care. Public assistance access barriers. Women's health and well-being.

I can also craft policy briefs, reports, press releases, web copy and blog posts.

My Recent Work

City Bureau •

How Chicagoans navigate mental health care on South, West Sides — City Bureau

Chicagoans know what sort of mental health services they want to see in their communities. But they don’t expect to see those services coming to their South and West Side neighborhoods any time soon.City Bureau Civic Reporting Fellows visited the neighborhoods of Austin and Chatham to connect with community members and understand what mental health care looks like to them and what resources they feel their neighborhoods lack.Those who spoke to City Bureau highlighted stigma around seeking help....
Shannon Davis Designs •

Profile — Shannon Davis Designs

Shannon Davis Johnston is obsessed – “No, passionate!” she laughs – about organizing interior spaces. As far back as she can recall, she wanted to be an interior designer. Her eye for design and order was evident even when she was a child: She often sketched floor plans of her clients’ homes while babysitting and spent her earnings on organizational items for her bedroom, where she regularly rearranged the furniture to better suit the space. Shannon spent Sunday nights watching ‘This Old House’
The Hechinger Report •

The mental health needs of Black and Hispanic girls often go unmet. This group wraps them in support

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — On a sunny but brisk November afternoon inside Robert Abbott Middle School, six eighth grade girls quickly filed into a small but colorful classroom and seated themselves in a circle.

Yuli Paez-Naranjo, a Working on Womanhood counselor, sported a purple WOW T-shirt as she led the group in a discussion about how values can inform decisions.

“Do you ever feel like two little angels are sitting on each of your shoulders, one whispering good things to you, the other whispering bad
Gateway Journalism Review •

Vulture hedge fund can’t stop Chicago’s media ecosystem from thriving

When Alden Global Capital bought Tribune Publishing in May 2021 and slashed Chicago Tribune newsroom staff to bare bones, few media experts and Chicago journalists were surprised.

“Years of poor management” at Tribune Publishing paved the way for Alden, said Brant Houston, professor and Knight chair in investigative and enterprise reporting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Two and a half years after Alden’s takeover, Houston and several Chicago media heavy hitters concurred that
Block Club Chicago •

This Whitney Young Senior's Method Of Predicting Wildfires Is Wowing International Scientists

WEST LOOP — Some teens spend their extracurricular time in clubs, sports or jobs. Chicagoan Nikita Agrawal spends hers researching how to predict wildfires in the United States.


Using tools learned during a summer internship with NASA, Agrawal has created a model for forecasting large wildfires across the United States with a high degree of accuracy.


Agrawal presented her research virtually last month at the 11th annual International Conference on Sustainable Development. In December, she...
Chicago Sun-Times •

Chicago public schools help students build mental health coping skills

When Alex Balleza was a freshman at Mather High School during the 2019-2020 school year, she felt socially isolated.

She also was in a romantic relationship that she now calls “toxic.” Then she heard about a program at Mather called Working on Womanhood , which promised opportunities to meet other girls and talk about problems. Alex signed up.

Created by Youth Guidance by and for Black and Latina girls, WOW is a weekly in-school group to mentor and build skills in sixth- through 12th-grade gir
Chicago Sun-Times •

Why some high school grads are skipping college, learning a trade

Visitors to most Chicago public high schools are bound to encounter hallways adorned with pennants and banners sporting the names of colleges from the Ivy League to state universities.

This can make it seem that college is the postsecondary Holy Grail. But not every high school senior applies to college. Many high school graduates are interested in skilled trades like carpentry, cosmetology or welding.

Hoping to avoid soaring college costs and student debt in favor of a faster and more hands-o