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Heather Kays

Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute

Heather Kays is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute and former managing editor of School Reform News, a national monthly publication.

Kays came to Heartland with more than 12 years experience as a reporter and editor covering mostly education and politics. She has written for the Herald News, The Record (the second largest newspaper in New Jersey) and the Staunton, Virginia Gannett newspaper the News Leader. Kays has also worked for the nonprofit education policy and school choice news group, Choice Media. Her work has been published by USA Today, the Associated Press and various other newspapers and websites.

Kays has won numerous awards including: second place for First Amendment writing (while working with four other reporters) from the New Jersey Press Association; third place for the Robert P. Kelly Award for first-year reporting from the New Jersey Press Association; second place by the Society of Professional Journalists for first-year reporting and Virginia School Board Association’s Media Honor Roll for the year. In 2008, she won a scholarship to attend the Neiman Narrative Conference at Harvard University.