NCLR Director of Planning and Development Kris Hermanns has more than a decade of expertise as a high-level fundraiser and program manager. Before joining NCLR, Kris served as director of special funds and was a program officer with The Rhode Island Foundation, which is comprised of more than 850 individual funds. There she created Equity Action, a field-of-interest fund for lesbian and gay concerns, and developed the grantmaking program for the Women's Fund of Rhode Island.

Prior to the Rhode Island Foundation, she worked for Brown University's Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service, which builds links between the university and the local nonprofits by developing partnerships that address community-identified needs. In addition to her professional work, Kris served on the board of directors of Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues.

Kris earned a Masters of Education in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.