This month we welcomed our first SHARE Frontline Leader Fellow, Kona Enders. Kona has worked as a PCA on 3 West at the University campus for seventeen years, where she has long been recognized as a strong advocate for her patients and coworkers. She’s served as a union rep for most of that time, and recently joined the Labor Management Partnership Council.
Kona with SHARE Organizer Will Erickson
We developed our Frontline Leader Fellowship to provide SHARE leaders with an opportunity to become more deeply oriented to SHARE’s approach to organizing people and solving problems. Fellows will spend a month with the SHARE staff, accompanying organizers to meetings and events and helping to keep in touch with members, as well as receiving training in topics like de-escalation, process improvement, and time management. To help us ramp up and knock out the kinks, Kona will split her time between 3 West and SHARE, extending the fellowship to two months. It’s a new idea, and we’re grateful to Kona for showing her typical courage in agreeing to be our first participant.
One of things you’re most likely to hear people say in describing Kona is her capacity say sometimes hard things to people, whoever they are – she’s reminded more than one doctor to foam their hands or keep their voice down. But somehow even when she’s calling you out, it feels like a gift. “My mother always said you have to speak your truth, but in a respectful way,” she explains.
This Spring and Summer, Kona worked exclusively with patients battling Covid-19. “It was scary,” she says of the experience. “And it was really difficult – they were so sick.” You can read more about her experience here.
Kona grew up in Liberia before following her older brother to Central Massachusetts. She has an adult daughter who also works in health care, and lives with her husband in North Worcester. If you see Kona in the hallway or are lucky enough to get a call from her checking in on you, please thank her for taking on this new challenge!