Melinda Haden Hawkesworth is the Executive Director and founder of BAC. She founded BAC in 2003 to continue to provide not-for-profit advocacy services to people who lost these services as a result of governmental budget cuts.

Ms. Hawkesworth has been serving lower income people for more than 13 years, getting her start with disability services, where she became a passionate advocate of mentally ill, homeless, and other disenfranchised people.