Halley French

Halley French is a senior program officer in Education for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she leads early learning initiatives through research, community engagement, strategy development, and grant management. Her grant portfolio focuses on early education quality improvement, policy advocacy, and systems building. She also coordinates the Kansas City Early Education Funders Collaborative.

Earlier, she was the external partnerships coordinator for Kauffman Scholars, Inc., where she managed community partners providing support services and enrichment opportunities for students in the program.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, French taught middle school math for Kansas City Public Schools and served as a New York City Teaching Fellow in the 2007 corps. French serves as a board member for the Berkley Child and Family Development Center’s Family Involvement Program.

French earned a Master of Arts in curriculum and instruction from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Kansas. In addition, she was awarded a certificate in grantsmanship from the University of Missouri.