Patrice Hawkins serves as the deputy executive director of community impact and strategic planning at Denver Human Services. In this role, she guides and directs our community impact, strategic planning, and marketing and communications efforts.
Hawkins previously was deputy director of customer experience for our Community Outreach and Resource Engagement team, for which she led multiple outreach teams based at over 30 community partner sites throughout the Denver metro area. She supported the employment and training program, a complex care team that offers integrated behavioral health to DHS customers, and programs focused on removing barriers related to poverty, housing, and food security. She began her career at DHS in the Family and Adult Assistance Division (FAAD) and also served the City and County of Denver as a management analyst in the city’s budget office.
Hawkins holds a master’s degree in social work from New York University, where she specialized in policy, advocacy, and juvenile justice. While in New York, Patrice was a Philanthropic Fellow with The New York Community Trust and supported projects at NYU’s McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research such as data analysis for Queens Library New Americans Program, and was a teaching assistant for Social Work Policy Practice and Advocacy course in Washington, D.C. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa.
A self-described “social justice warrior,” Hawkins’ passion for working with youth is evident in her prior work with Americorps’ Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation, where she supported a dropout prevention program for Denver youth. She currently serves as an adult commissioner on the Mayor’s Youth Commission. She also provided program evaluation for programs serving justice-involved youth for New York’s Good Shepherd Services.
Hawkins is an avid museum and concert goer and traveler, and equally enjoys Denver’s eclectic coffee scene, distance running, and listening to podcasts.