United States Army Sergeant First Class and Syracuse Police Officer Kristin Hughes hails from Syracuse, New York. Kristin attended Bishop Grimes High School where she played soccer and graduated in 2012. She later became the Bishop Grimes girls assistant head soccer coach in 2017 for one year.
In between Kristin’s junior and senior year of high school, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and attended basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. After graduating from Bishop Grimes High School in 2012, she attended advanced individual training to become a Human Resources Specialist. Over her ten-year career, Sergeant First Class Hughes served with the 865th Combat Support Hospital and is currently serving with the 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion in Mattydale, New York where she has deployed to the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She has been awarded the Army Commendation and Achievement Medals and has attended the long-range marksmanship course, master fitness trainer course, combat life saver course, several leadership courses, competed in the best warrior competition, and was awarded the German Armed Forces Medal (Silver).
Kristin attended and graduated from the Syracuse Regional Police Academy in 2019. Police Officer Hughes is currently assigned to the Syracuse City Road Patrol, and she is the department’s first female bomb technician apprentice in the Hazardous Devices Unit.
Sergeant First Class Hughes’ proudest military moment is serving as the Color Guard NCOIC for the 9/11 Memorial Utica Stair Climb honoring New York State Trooper and 9/11 First Responder, Dennis Burgos, who died in 2017.