2022 Integrity Icon Philadelphia Winner | Meet Lori Hayes

Lori Maple Hayes is the director of urban forestry at the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation. She is also the person in charge of planting the trees that make our city more beautiful and livable.

She was nominated, in part, for her efforts to make Tree Philly’s programs accessible to everyone—the elderly, the blind, women who want to climb trees and be arborists, low-income communities and returning citizens.

She has led a program partnering with high school students to plant trees in underserved neighborhoods and has a huge network of people throughout the city who love and respect her, according to a reference.

Hayes is the rare Black woman in a field dominated by White men, and a leader whose employees view as kind and realistic and passionate about our parks and forests.

Our judges also selected Hayes for her incredible commitment to service: She has spent most of her life in public service; she was an intern, then a groundskeeper, then a technician for Parks and Rec, before taking on her current role. To do this for some 40 years and not become jaded or burned out is a marvel.

“Integrity means everything you do right—the honesty, the professionalism, theprofessionalism the responsibility,” Hayes says. “Once you have earned it and achieved it, no one can take it away.”

Attend the ceremony where we honor each of this year’s Integrity Icons on April 7, 2022 by RSVPing here: https://philadelphia-citizen.ticketleap.com/philadelphia-integrity-icon-awards-ceremony/

ABOUT INTEGRITY ICON PHILADELPHIA
Integrity Icon 2022 is The Philadelphia Citizen’s second annual contest to name the non-elected city employees who have demonstrated the highest ethics and integrity in their work. In partnership with Accountability Lab—which has run Integrity Icon competitions throughout the world since 2012—The Citizen has made Philadelphia the first and only American city to participate in the program.

After a citywide nominating process in fall of 2021, a panel of civic leaders selected five workers who best embodied the simple but powerful criteria: A high-integrity public service employee is respectful and caring; knows their work makes a difference to people’s lives; acts in a trustworthy and transparent way to solve problems the best they can; treats everyone equally, without regard to politics or influence; and goes above and beyond to provide good service to Philadelphians.

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