A servant’s heart

by Peter Finney Jr.

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Decades later, Cynthia Hayes recalls the moment from her childhood as transformative.

The incoming president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans was 7 years old, living in New Hyde Park, New York, and the family had just finished celebrating Christmas.

Her mother had surprised her father Frank, a landscape architect and a talented jazz pianist, with an overcoat to ward off the Long Island winter.

Frank and his eldest brother, a drummer, played in a band, and they performed on the Saturday night after Christmas. Frank didn’t get back to the house until well past midnight.

“On Sunday morning, we were all getting ready for church and ready to get out the door, and my mother said, ‘Where’s your coat?’” Hayes said. “And, so, my dad said, ‘I was on my way to the car after I played last night and saw a homeless man shivering in the cold, and I gave him my coat.’”

Former Cabrini principal

Hayes, the former president and principal of Cabrini High School in New Orleans, said the lesson her father taught her that day has resonated with her for her entire life.

“That really spoke volumes to me,” she said. “That was just one example of the kind heart – and an example of sharing.”

In her new role as CEO of Catholic Charities, Hayes is hoping to leverage her decade as a high school teacher, counselor and principal and her 27 years as a top administrator for the Tulane University School of Medicine to expand Catholic Charities’ mission of serving those on the margins.

“There will always be needs, and Catholic Charities is of utmost importance in fulfilling those needs,” Hayes said. “I don’t see those needs being facilitated in any other kind of way. Especially with the makeup of our city, if we didn’t have Catholic Charities, I believe we would have to establish a Catholic Charities.

“We’ve got a level of poor that I’m sure other cities can equal, but what I have witnessed is really poor individuals who have nothing. If we didn’t have a Catholic Charities, I don’t know how they could be taken care of. And, the wonderful thing is that you don’t have to be Catholic to be taken care of. It’s multi-denominational. It’s all people who are just so thankful for what you’re providing.”

Assumes new role Jan. 1

Hayes will assume her leadership role on Jan. 1 – Marianite Sister Marjorie Hebert will retire on Dec. 31 after 12 years as CEO – and she has spent the last several weeks meeting the staff of Catholic Charities’ 30 programs and interacting with the people they serve.

Because many of Catholic Charities’ programs serving the needy depend on state and federal grants, Hayes is hoping to use her expertise as a fund-raiser to expand the agency’s reach. She plans to hire a full-time grant writer to support those efforts.

“Sister Marjorie has done an outstanding job,” Hayes said. “She’s a strong leader, she’s well-loved and she’s done so much. What I’m going to be doing initially is strengthening, and that is through financial support. The key to that is relationships. It’s engagement. It’s people.”

In her previous positions, Hayes has been very analytical in identifying challenges and then moving to find solutions. When she was first named principal of Cabrini High School in the mid-1980s, she recognized that a three-tiered curriculum needed to be changed to an all-academic model. She had spent her first few years at Cabrini as a counselor.

“The curriculum was scattered into the tracks of general, business and academic,” she said. “Only 60% of our kids were being accepted into college, so obviously, that wasn’t working. The first thing we had to do was revamp the curriculum and make it all academic since that’s where the girls were going.”

Targeted approach

Cabrini also had never applied for the prestigious certification from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

“I knew that once things were in order, that needed to be done,” Hayes said. “And, since all schools need support, I began the development program, hired someone as development director and created a board. There was no such thing as an alumnae association, and I had an
alumnae board as well.”

She also hit on a location-specific fundraiser: Since the school was located just two blocks from the entrance to Jazz Fest, she asked the men’s club to park cars.

“Believe it or not, some of those same men are still doing it,” Hayes said.

Hayes left Cabrini in 1991 because she felt her school responsibilities were limiting her time to be with her three young sons, and she was hired to become the manager of corporate relations with Lykes Brothers Steamship.

“The school was flourishing, and things were happening and Cabrini was in a good place,” Hayes said. “But I looked around. We had coffees in the evening for parents at their homes, so there were 24-hour periods that went by and I didn’t see my boys. I looked at my checklist and said, ‘I’m going to miss something I can’t recapture.’”

In three years at Lykes – after poring over an encyclopedia-sized dictionary of steamship terminology – she wrote the company’s first training manual.

St. Dominic service

As a parishioner at St. Dominic Parish in Lakeview, she befriended Dominican Fathers Val McInnes and Neal McDermott, which led to three years as director of development for the parish and school, raising $2 million in major gifts, grants and annual fund support.

Then, in 1997, she joined the Tulane University School of Public Health, founded in 1834 around the time of the first yellow fever epidemic. She worked first as a senior program manager in the School of Public Health and later took on roles for the School of Medicine in alumni relations, annual giving and major gifts, raising millions of dollars.

St. Catherine parishioner

Now as a parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Metairie, Hayes is president-elect of the women’s club, a role she says she will continue to fulfill.

“The person who really brought us to St. Catherine was Father Ronnie Calkins,” Hayes said. “My husband (Stephen) was actually at one point studying to be a priest, and Ronnie was in his class. I was amazed, looking at their ministries and the vibrant work that was happening there.”

She said Father Calkins’ inspirational work has been reinforced by Father Tim Hedrick, the current pastor.

“He’s unbelievable,” Hayes said. “He’s a very strong leader. Just his witness to us – his role modeling – got me more and more involved in the church and various ministries.”

When Hayes received an invitation to apply for the Catholic Charities position from a national recruiting group, she made an instant decision to do so.

“I didn’t blink,” Hayes said. “It was an immediate yes.

“I feel as though I’m coming back home. I’m going back to the Catholic sector, but this is far greater than I’ve ever done. I’m helping the voiceless, the vulnerable. The intrinsic reward is just unmatched.”

[email protected]