Staff

Alexis Boian,
Founder and Executive Director

Alexis Boian is the Founder and Executive Director of the Young Philanthropists Foundation.
Her background is in marketing and communications, with an emphasis on the independent
sector.

At the age of 25, after witnessing the September 11 terrorist attacks from
her balcony in Brooklyn, NY, she founded the September 11 Quilt Project,
a national “healing” project that received enormous acclaim. A giant
American flag made up of individually designed panels of cloth that came
from all over the world, the September 11 Quilt Project toured the country,
and was featured in such publications as The New York Times, People, TIME,
and The Washington Post as well as on such news programs as CNN Headline News.
The flag was recently donated to the Colorado Historical Society.

Alexis is a graduate of the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Leadership Program
and a member of the 2008 Class of Leadership Denver through the Denver
Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation. She was nominated as Outstanding
Professional in Philanthropy in 2009 for National Philanthropy Day and Outstanding
Woman in Business in 2010 through the Denver Business Journal.

Alexis currently serves on the board of directors for Grab the Torch.

Kelly Hayes,
Program Manager

Kelly Hayes has a bachelors in creative writing from CU, Boulder, and a certification to
teach English as a Foreign Language.  She took her writing and teaching skills around the
world to live and work in Poland and Japan for a couple years, teaching English to students
from 2 years up to retirees, before coming home to teach personal finances to kids at
Young Americans Center for Financial Education.  There she developed curriculum,
games and lessons to make learning about money as fun and meaningful as possible to kids
of all ages - including their parents - and from all walks of life, from incarcerated youth to
Girl Scouts, 1st graders to foster children, special needs children and teens to
low-income families. 

After 5 years she answered the call to teach English downtown to adults from all over the world
for a year before she found her way to Young Philanthropists Foundation.