As VisionSpring's Global Director of Development, Kristen Houlton Shaw works with philanthropic partners in support of the mission to bring eyeglasses to people living on less than $4/day around the world.
Prior to joining VisionSpring, Kristen led the Sexual Violence Center, a rape crisis center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kristen led a turnaround of the agency, reorganizing and doubling the staff, engaging federal and foundation support to triple the budget, and acting as subject matter expert with the media and as a conference speaker.
Previously, Kristen worked for several years in Sub-Saharan Africa. With Computer Aid International, she launched a donor-funded program in technology skill-building for women, teachers and youth in Liberia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. In Malawi as National HIV Programmes Coordinator for the Prisons Service, she spearheaded HIV prevention, treatment and impact mitigation programs and services in 35 prison stations and administrative offices across the country. During her tenure she raised nearly one million dollars to support the program and built a team of prison officers nationwide trained and mandated to carry out the Prisons’ HIV Response. Kristen originally moved to Malawi to work as management advisor in a rural youth-run and youth-focused community-based organization for the U.S. Peace Corps.
Her earlier professional experience includes several years working at the University of Minnesota in research and teaching, a period at the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO (the statewide umbrella organization representing unionized workers in California) and a range of roles in government and political campaigns.
Kristen holds a Master’s Degree in Feminist Philosophy, a joint degree pursued through the departments of Philosophy and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, from the University of Minnesota. She earned her undergraduate degree in Politics from New York University.
