Spotlight: New Associate Directors Announced
The Carl Vinson Institute of Government has two new associate directors, pending approval of the State Board of Regents.
Karen Baynes will direct the Institute's recently created Governmental Services Division. Her most recent work experience is as an associate juvenile court judge in Fulton County. She began there as executive director of the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, where she recruited, trained, managed and retained community volunteers to advocate in the interests of abused and neglected children. She later became program development director, implementing and managing programs for the juvenile court system. Baynes has been in her current role as associate judge since 1998, in which she serves as judicial officer and liaison to the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services. She received her B.A. from Wake Forest University and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. "Karen brings to our organization a strong set of skills and experiences that we anticipate will enable us to develop a new area of expertise as well as continue to respond to our existing client needs at both the state and local levels," says Jim Ledbetter, Vinson Institute director.
Brenda Branch Hayes is the new associate director of the Institute's Community and Regional Development Division. She is most recently director of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Office of Downtown and Community Services. While there she supervised the combining of the Main Street Georgia and Better Hometown programs and established a new statewide Office of Downtown and Community Services for DCA in Athens. She was formerly regional representative for DCA Region Two, where she coordinated activities and collaborated with regional partners. Hayes was also development director in the Office of Institutional Advancement at North Georgia State College and University and chairman of the Hall County Commission from 1993-97. She received her B.A. from Augusta State University and her M.P.A. from North Georgia State College and University. "Brenda possesses the experiences, abilities, and insights that will help the Institute respond with increasing effectiveness to community and regional governments' needs and concerns," notes Ledbetter.
