Daughter of Guyanese professor to sit on Biden appointed fitness council
Executive Director of the Dance Institute of Washington Kahina Haynes, who is the daughter of Guyanese business professor and accountant Floyd Haynes, was on Friday named among the 27 people that US President Joe Biden will appoint to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition.
The federal advisory committee, according to a release from the White house, will also include basketball star Stephen ‘Steph’ Curry and his wife Ayesha, University of Delaware men’s basketball coach Martin Ingelsby, Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim and Phillies baseball icon Ryan Howard.
“I am extremely honored to be appointed as a member of President Biden’s renewed Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. My ongoing and evolving mission is about breaking barriers and changing mindsets to achieve a more equitable and just society—in this case through sports (including dance), fitness and nutrition,” she told the Stabroek News via phone.
“This is the first time in history that the transformative dance industry, one of the only fields that sits at the cross sections of sport, art, and culture, is being represented on this council; and, it illustrates to me a national, and hopefully global, shift in the acknowledgment and perception of the impact of this very special medium,” she added.
Haynes, a former Fulbright Scholar, says she has spent the last 15 years in the public and international sectors building strategic partnerships, and training on evidence based program design to demonstrate that dance and sport have incredible value and serve as a powerful platform for health/wellness, youth development, social emotional learning, and recovery from trauma.
Her skills and experiences she is willing to share with Guyana.
“I’m excited for this appointment to accelerate positive momentum and position the work to connect internationally with ministries of sports, arts, and culture across countries such as Guyana.
Floyd Haynes beamed with pride when he learned of the announcement and told Stabroek News that his daughter only departed Guyana last week after vacationing here.
“She is an example of what can be achieved when you follow your dreams, work hard and play by the rules. When she graduated college, she had several offers to work for some very big companies. But instead she chose to follow her passion and went into dancing, and through that she is making a difference in the lives of young people, daily, by offering a safe space for their artistic expression,” he said.
According to the White House statement, the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition “aims to promote healthy, accessible eating and physical activity for all Americans, regardless of background or ability.”
It said that Biden issued Executive Order 14048, renewing the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition, “which allows for continued promotion of the National Youth Sports Strategy and provides for the work of the council to include a focus on expanding national awareness of the importance of mental health as it pertains to physical fitness and nutrition”.
Haynes, the release said, is a passionate arts activist and “the visionary architect behind one of Washington, DC’s leading models for advancing equity in community health, development, and achievement outcomes.
“Utilising an innovative and holistic systems approach, the Dance Institute of Washington uses its platforms to educate, create, and advance practices to address longstanding disparities in the dance industry. Following the untimely passing of the institute’s founder Fabian Barnes, Haynes led a strategic revitalization of the organisation which saw a breadth of new radical program designs, the award of a groundbreaking federal funding appropriation of $1 million from the US Congress, and a multi-year facilities renovation to outfit the flagship site to expand on its 44,000 family reach.”
Prior to her current role, Haynes worked in organisational development and process evaluation and strategy for a number of philanthropies and multilaterals including the United Nations (Bureau for Development Policy at UNDP), the Annie E Casey Foundation, the US Department of Health & Human Services, SafeKids Worldwide, the World Bank Group, and the US Department of State, the release said.
Haynes was recently recognized by the National Black Voices for Black Justice Fund as a 2022 awardee for work in addressing structural and systemic racism, and is also the recipient of the David Bradt Non-profit Leadership Award (2021). She holds a BA from Princeton University
with a minor in African American Studies and a concentration in Dance, as well as an MSC from Oxford University in Evidence-based Social Intervention.