Kristi Putnam has more than 25 years of policy and hands-on experience in human services, early childhood services, education, workforce development, and health policy, and has led implementation of Arkansas’ Maternal Health and Communities of Care innovations, Kentucky’s Medicaid and foster care transformations, Florida’s early learning and school readiness program, and many other innovative statewide policy and process initiatives in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Florida. She believes in the power of connection to others as a transformational force, and in benevolent disruption of the status quo in government systems.

Kristi has provided policy and strategy guidance to legislative members, including House leadership in the Kentucky House of Representatives, federal agencies, such as The Administration for Children & Families’ Office of Family Assistance, and many state health & human services agencies and associations.

Kristi served in the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) beginning in March 2016 in the child welfare and family assistance office. After serving with CHFS for two years and leading Medicaid innovation efforts, she was appointed Deputy Secretary of CHFS in May 2018 and served until December 2019. In this role, Kristi helped lead impactful and collaborative cross-cabinet reforms in health policy, public benefits delivery, human-centered design and workforce strategies, operational technology improvements, child welfare, and early childhood and education supports. She assisted in leading daily operations for CHFS, a cabinet with more than 8,000 employees and an operating budget of over $14 billion.

After her time at CHFS, Kristi co-founded Connecting the Dots Policy Solutions LLC, a consulting group focused on driving government innovations in the intersection of health, human services, education, workforce development, and economic growth.

Kristi previously served in the state of Florida as the Child Welfare Services Manager, Chief of Community-Based Care, and Statewide Foster Care Licensing Specialist in the Florida Department of Children and Families’ privatized community-based system of foster care and adoption. Her prior experience in Florida included policy and legislative development and implementation in the Department of Education, Department for Children and Families, the Florida Partnership for School Readiness, the Executive Office of the Governor, and the Florida Children’s Forum.

Kristi was appointed Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services by Governor Sarah Sanders in January 2023, where she served successfully until July 2025, when she returned to Kentucky to be closer to family. Just prior to her appointment in Arkansas, Kristi served as the Chief People Officer, Chief of Staff, and Director of Government Affairs for AppHarvest, a publicly traded agtech startup in Kentucky.

Kristi was born and raised in the small town of DeLand, Florida, graduated from DeLand High School, and earned her Bachelor’s degree in English and Social Work from Florida State University (go ‘Noles!). She earned her Master of Science in Psychology, Industrial & Organizational Change, from Southern New Hampshire University.

Kristi and her husband Claude are the proud parents of three adult daughters and are enjoying being promoted to the role of grandparents of three grandchildren. They enjoy life on a small farm in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky in the middle of horse and bourbon country with their two rescue dogs and a rescue cat.