Kirsten Haglund is an international women’s empowerment speaker, President of the Kirsten Haglund Foundation, television personality, vocalist, and served as Miss America 2008. During her year with the Miss America Organization, she served as Goodwill Ambassador for the Children’s Miracle Network, appeared as one of SHAPE magazine’s “Women Who SHAPED the World in 2008,” and was a tireless advocate for increased awareness of eating disorders as a public health priority, having overcome a battle with anorexia as a young ballet dancer. On behalf of this cause, she has made guest speaking appearances at Harvard University, the National Press Club in Washington D.C., and for the United States Congress while lobbying with the Eating Disorders Coalition for Mental Health Parity and the FREED Bill. Kirsten is now the Community Relations Specialist with Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, and travels across the country to speak at universities, churches, for women’s groups, athletes and artists, and national conferences on women’s empowerment, eating disorders, and consumer advocacy related to the beauty and diet industries. She is also a proud Ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In February of 2009, Kirsten founded The Kirsten Haglund Foundation and serves as it’s current President. The mission of the Foundation is to fundraise to provide treatment scholarships to assist families and individuals battling eating disorders. The Foundation has worked in collaboration with treatment centers across the country to award more than 20 scholarships for varying levels of care. Kirsten began recording music with Nautilus Records in 2009, as a way to continue her love of singing, and use her music to bring increased awareness to eating disorders and other charitable causes. She has recorded the single “Heroes Never Die” her EP “American Pride, and newly released Full 12 Song CD – “True Joy of Christmas.”
In other work, Kirsten is a regular commentator on women’s health and celebrity issues on “Hannity,” “Red-Eye,” “Fox & Friends Weekend” and “The Real Story” on Fox News Channel, Huff Post LIVE, The Blaze and HLN. She has contributed writing pieces for the Huffington Post, the National Eating Disorders Association Journal “Making Connections,” has been a featured blogger for 2013 Binge Eating Disorders Association Weight Stigma Awareness Week, as well as established her own blog on BlogHer.com. She is also active in volunteering with One Hundred Days, an organization based in Atlanta that is building Rwanda’s first children’s hospital, and creating small business initiatives in the Kigali community. Kirsten has also served as Honorary Co-Chair for the Not For Sale Gala for the past two years, an organization with combats global human trafficking. Kirsten studied musical theatre performance at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, and graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in Political Science in May 2013.