Photo of white woman with glasses and blond hair

Trina Haygaru

Managing Director of Culture and Policy

Trina Haygaru is a member of the site development team for the Center for Systems Awareness. She joined the Center after serving as the Lower School Principal at the International School of Indiana for eight years.  With an MS in school leadership from Baker University, she has been a school administrator for 13 years and an educator for more than 20.

Trina has been working in International Education most of her career and has lived and worked in Thailand, Egypt, Mozambique, Los Angeles, and Nigeria. She is an enthusiastic world traveler and enjoys connecting with teachers, administrators and students around the globe.   

She started working with compassionate systems in late 2016. While working at the International School of Indiana, Trina and her staff wrote and implemented six interdisciplinary units using the Compassionate Systems Framework.  These units are focused around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and include units on “Access to Water,” “Poverty,” “Human Movement,” “Hunger,” “Art as an Agent of Change,” “Access to Electricity” and “Ecosystems.” Trina has presented this work at several conferences including the International Baccalaureate Global Conference in 2022 and to the Committee on Teaching About the United Nations in 2021. 

Before working in the classroom, Trina was the Director of Education at Discovery World Museum in Milwaukee Wisconsin.  While in this role she served as an Educational Representative for the National Science Foundation and for the Society of Automotive Engineers.  

Trina’s goal is to continue to grow the Compassionate Systems Framework in schools around the world.  She is passionate about helping children and adults understand their profound connectedness to each other and the planet.  

thaygaru@systemsawareness.org