Kathleen Leynes

2025-2026 Obama Foundation USA Leader

Headshot of Kathleen Leynes, 2025-2026 Obama Foundation USA Leader

Director of Professional Development and Curriculum Design, Youth Guidance

Chicago, Illinois

Kathleen Leynes is the director of professional development and curriculum design for Youth Guidance’s EVOLVE program, where she leads national efforts to embed social-emotional learning into school culture. A former high school social worker, Kathleen draws on over 15 years of experience supporting students and educators as the architect of EVOLVE, having reached over 2,400 students across 60 schools annually in just 3 years, with 61% of youth participants maintaining or improving their GPA while demonstrating growth in emotional regulation, social awareness, and perspective-taking. After expanding the EVOLVE program to over 70 schools nationally within the last 4 years, Kathleen now seeks to reach 120 schools to continue scaling her impact.

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