Women in Leadership Advisor Member

Kristina Pires

Active Term: 10/2025 - 10/2026

Areas of Expertise

• Advocacy, Actions & Accountability
  
• Transformational Vs. Transactional Leadership
• Organizational Leadership & Cultural Diversity

Executive Director

Generation Citizen

Kristina Pires, MSW, LCSW serves as the Executive Director of Generation Citizen New England, a community-based civic education program that provides young people with the civic knowledge, skills, and motivation necessary to participate in democracy as active citizens. She has led the organization since July 2022, overseeing programs across four New England states.

Pires brings over a decade of experience in nonprofit leadership, community organizing, and youth development to her role. She founded and leads the Rhode Island Civic Learning Coalition, a multiracial, multiethnic, and multigenerational coalition committed to ensuring equitable access to high-quality civic learning opportunities for all Rhode Islanders. She also serves on the Massachusetts Civic Learning Coalition steering committee and has consulted on launching the Connecticut Civic Learning Coalition.

Her career trajectory with Generation Citizen began in 2018 as Rhode Island Program Director, where she advanced to New England Regional Senior Program Director before assuming the executive director role. Previously, she served as Student Services Manager at Year Up Providence (2016-2018), a national workforce development program. Her early career included serving as Youth Coordinator at Chelsea Collaborative (2013-2015), where she supervised multiple youth organizing groups focused on social and environmental justice.

Pires holds a Master of Social Work from Boston University School of Social Work with a macro concentration in community organizing and program planning, where she received the 2014 Sarah Lange Commencement Prize. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Rhode Island and has completed certificate programs in both Nonprofit Management and Leadership through Tufts University and Fundraising through Philanthropy Massachusetts. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Service Learning from Bryant University, where she received the 2010 Sociology Department Commencement Award.

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