Kristi Hickey-Vigilante

Senior Regional Director

Since joining YAI as a crisis intervention supervisor in 1990, Kristi has taken on many roles and played a pivotal role in developing training curricula to support parents with special needs and programming geared toward understanding sexuality for people with I/DD. In her current position as Senior Regional Director, she oversees YAI’s community and family services and Center for Specialty Therapy. She also oversees YAI’s clinical affiliate, Premier HealthCare.

Kristi is passionate about advocacy, program development, and ensuring both staff and people receiving services are able to thrive. She helped lead YAI’s expansion to support people with mental health issues and children's crisis residences and served for 10 years as the chair of the Queens DD Council Family Support Committee. She is co-chair of the InterAgency Clinic Committee and holds a bachelor's in social work from SUNY at Brockport and a master’s in social work from Adelphi University.