Politics/Community Involvement

In addition to a traditional focus on the public realm of governance and power structures, this theme should also reflect a feminist understanding of “the personal as political.” We are interested in women’s opinions, values, and activities as they relate to a broad sphere of social relations.

Kim Miner

Executive Vice President/General Counsel, Worcester Red Sox

With the current ownership group when they bought the team in 2015, I think the team was exclusively white men on the staff across the board.  It has been what six or seven years since then? I think it has changed drastically. I actually think it’s changed a lot since we made the move to Worcester. We just have had better success finding a broader array of candidates. We have a lot of women, we have over time—and we are finally getting more racial diversity as well—diversity in other areas. It has been a priority. Brooke Cooper who your classmates talked to, is now the Senior Vice President and we now have two female VPs which is great. Since I came to the club, I was the only female VP until Brooke was made one. And I think it’s been good. You know there's always growing experiences and we have been trained well. I wanted to bring more women into the front office, it's a nice and fun environment with that. Not everyone is the same. Everyone has different backgrounds,everyone has different thoughts about baseball, how we should interact with the community and that makes it more interesting.

Kim Miner was born in 1989 in Boston, Massachusetts.  She was raised in Concord, Massachusetts. Kim is the daughter of Kathy and Bob Miner of Pennsylvania and has one younger sister. After attending Tufts University for a bachelors in economics, she took a gap year to work a few different minimum wage jobs to discover more of who she is. Kim married Adam Aronson in June 2017 and they now live in Quincy, Massachusetts. They do not have any kids but adopted a dog and cat recently. Kim went to law school at Harvard Law School and became a lawyer.

Interview Date: 
Sun, 03/13/2022
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Elizabeth Hamilton

Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club Worcester

I have to tell you, it's been an incredible honor, working at the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester, because I feel like this organization has done so much for so many years.  We are 133 years old so way before I was ever involved, it was doing great work and I believe it's continuing to do great work. And what I like about Boys and Girls Clubs in general is they meet the needs of the community they serve. So, there's I think 4000, over 4000 Boys and Girls Clubs in the US. If you've been to one Boys and Girls Club, you've only been to one Boys and Girls Club.  Every Boys and Girls Club is going be different. And I love that I feel like our clubs in Great Brook Valley, Palmer Village, and in the Main South area, truly represent our kids and our community. And I'm really proud of the incredibly talented and diverse team members that do so much incredible work with our kids and families. But I also want to acknowledge how great our kids are. Unlike regular childcare, our kids decide every day to walk here to get here. So, they're making really good choices and they're showing great leadership. And I'm proud of the work that they're doing. We're providing some resources and support but ultimately, it's up to the kids and it's always a real privilege to see them when they first start with us they’re age five and then graduate from high school and then go on to college and just see their transformation in their growth and everything that they've done for themselves. It's, it's amazing.

Elizabeth Hamilton was born in 1968 in Hackensack, New Jersey.  When she was the age of six, she moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma with her parents, brother and sister until the age of 18.  Elizabeth went to college at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, and then earned her master’s degree in social work at Boston University.  Between her undergraduate and graduate study, she served two years of Jesuit Volunteer Corps, one in Great Falls, Montana, and then another in Worcester, Massachusetts, which is how she became familiar with Worcester.  Elizabeth is married to Matthew and

Interview Date: 
Wed, 02/23/2022
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Hamilton

Brooke Cooper

Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager, Worcester Red Sox

So now I'm the Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager for the Worcester Red Sox and there's a lot that goes into it.  People ask what day to day is like, and I always say every day is different. I directly oversee productions and ballpark entertainment and that includes what you see on the video board, as well as social media and the television broadcast. I oversee merchandise, so the team store and all of our branding, community relations.  And then marketing has really been kind of my specialty and that includes advertising, but also outreach and the different promotions that we do. I have a hand in some of our HR [human resources] efforts, including recruiting and hiring and training. So pretty broad, but I think that's one of the really beautiful things about minor league baseball is that you're not put into a box and you get to explore a lot of different areas. We all wear many different hats, and it's been a really great opportunity to grow professionally.

Brooke Cooper was born in Woonsocket, RI in 1992 and attended Woonsocket public schools. She attended Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire pursuing a Bachelor's of Science degree in Sport and Recreation Management. She then attended Providence College and obtained her MBA. Upon completing her MBA, she interned for the Pawtucket Red Sox, who then hired Brooke when she graduated. She began her career within the Red Sox organization, and is now the Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager for the Worcester Red Sox [Woo Sox], a Triple-A Affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 03/09/2022
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Tracy Baldelli

Major Gifts Officer, WPI

At the beginning [of the Covid 19 pandemic], because the weather was so nice, I really liked it because I used that to get outside and to move. We all had so much time on our hands that it was like, what do you do with all this time? And then of course, we all went through our slump. Overeating, doing your thing watching Netflix all the time, getting takeout. So, I would say it became a rough time. But again, I think from a professional perspective, it helped me realize what I want. I could not be a remote employee, I needed to work with a team, I needed a boss that really didn't have an ego, that was there for their employees.

Tracy Baldelli was born in Boston, MA in 1993 and grew up with her family in Southborough, a neighboring town to Worcester. She then furthered her education at Assumption College now Assumption University. After Tracy graduated, she became an active member of the Worcester community. She's an active board member at the Boys and Girls Club and joined the Emerald Club. Tracy was first employed at United Way and then at Worcester Polytechnic Institute [WPI] and Providence College.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 03/23/2022
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Donna Crocker

Teacher; Member of Worcester Institute for Senior Education

Be yourself. Be strong. [laughs] Be ready and don’t be too hard on yourself. I think that women are coming to a point where they can feel stronger and express that. I would say also have a sense of humor; don’t expect to be perfect. Realize that most of the time life is good and do your best.

Donna Garrison Crocker was born in San Antonio Texas in 1944.  She moved around quite a bit as a young girl growing up, as her father was in, what was referred to at the time, as Army Air Corps during World War II. She and her family ultimately settled down in Weymouth, MA where she would later meet her husband. Donna now lives in Uxbridge, MA with her husband and the two of them regularly attend WISE [Worcester Institute for Senior Education] classes at Assumption College in Worcester.

Interview Date: 
Thu, 10/03/2019
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Sandra Congdon

Phone Company and Ecotarium Visitor Services; Community Volunteer; Member of WISE

I would say learn everything you can, and don’t put boxes around what you learn. Even though when I was working for the phone company I was learning how to talk to people, that fell over the edges of the box and led me to other things. And experiment, and explore. I go to Europe every spring, me and a bunch of my friends, and we love it so much and we get out and we went to Scotland, we ate haggis [makes disgusted look]. But I mean if I’m going some place I have never been before, then I’m going to do what is there, I’m going to eat some weird thing that I’ve never heard of before, or that I’ve heard of and thought “Oh that must be awful.” Just don’t shut yourself down, keep yourself open to all new experiences, and learn, learn, learn as much as you can.

Sandra Jean Whitehouse Desaulniers Congdon was born in 1945 in Storrs, Connecticut where she attended Ashford Elementary School, E.O. Smith High School, and the University of Connecticut. However, she withdrew from the university when she married her husband, had a daughter prematurely, and began a career at the local telephone company. She lived in numerous small towns around Massachusetts, but when the company relocated to Worcester, MA, she moved with them.

Interview Date: 
Mon, 10/14/2019
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Hanna Solska

Professor in Poland; former Executive Director, International Center of Worcester; Manager of Patient Relations, Saint Vincent Hospital, MetroWest Medical Center

Well, I didn’t really choose, [laughs] I was forced to choose. If I had stayed on my original path, then I would be professor of law by now, teaching. But you learn to adjust, I guess. That’s a plus. You learn how to adjust to different circumstances.  Suddenly you are dropped in the middle of something—somewhere you’ve never been. And I think you just learn to adjust. And I think compromise, adjustment—that’s what it taught me.  Cons, of course, I wish [laughs] I could have stayed in Poland. But there was huge political unrest in Poland.  That was one of major reasons why I left.  I didn’t want my children to go through this. So, I don’t know how it would have been in 1980. That was solidarity movement in Poland and the whole of Europe was a lot of different movements—political movements. So, that was reason why I left and who knows what I’d be doing there if I stayed. But here, definitely that was challenge. But I think it made me stronger. I couldn’t rely on my mom anymore, which I did a lot, and my grandmother. So, now I was on my own. I had to survive and I had two small children. You learn quickly what to do, that you can survive new circumstances you don’t know much about.

Hanna Solska was born in 1947 in Warsaw Poland, right after World War II. She received a Master’s in Sociology and a PhD in Law from Warsaw University. She migrated to America in 1980 and went from Ohio, to Worcester, Massachusetts, and then to Sutton, Massachusetts where she currently resides. Although she was passionate about being a professor in Poland, her law degree did not transfer forcing her to channel her passions into the Worcester community.

Interview Date: 
Mon, 10/22/2018
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Jennifer Swan

Artist; Teacher; Technocopia Consultant

Going to art school was incredible.  I think sometimes people think of art as being fun and easy, but it has its own challenges and so I think going to college, it made me really challenge myself, think really deeply, work really hard.  Art is problem solving, so learning how to work through problems, find solutions, not give up, persevere, but I think overall, it’s made me the person I am today. It’s made me a creative person and a creative thinker and that can be used in all different situations of life, not just college.

Jennifer Swan was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1977 and now currently resides in Barre, Massachusetts. Jennifer, a local artist, attended Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. She has traveled to India, Colorado, California, and New Mexico for her art.  She received a Kinnicutt Travel/Study Award from the Worcester Art Museum. In the interview, Jennifer stated she is an art teacher in Worcester, who enjoys teaching all ages from children to adults.

Interview Date: 
Fri, 10/12/2018
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Asima Silva

Software Engineer; Co-founder, Enjoin Good; Radio Host, Perspectives

I think the reason why I’ve been able to do it as long as I have is because with work people say do what you love, and what I liked about doing what I do, is once I start coding, or once I start programming, or once I start designing, I lose complete track of time. I could be doing it for eight hours straight and not even realize that eight hours went by. When I was in school doing it as an undergrad, I’d sit at the computer at eight at night and I’d realize at six in the morning—wait a second, the entire night went by. And I thought to myself this is wonderful.  People say you have to work eight hours or ten hours a day, isn't it wonderful if you go in and you do something that you don't even feel like it’s eight to ten hours it felt like it was one because you enjoyed it and that's the reason why I think I'm still a software engineer.

Asima Silva was born in Hyderabad, India in 1974 and moved to the Worcester area when she was three years old. Asima received her undergraduate degree, as well as her master’s degree in computer science from Worcester Polytechnic University, where she was a top performer. She has five children, a full-time job as a software engineer, co-founded an outreach and diversity organization, called Enjoin Good, with her husband, and also has a local television and radio show, Perspectives, which airs weekly.

Interview Date: 
Thu, 10/11/2018
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Susan Mailman

President, Coghlin Electric

Since I am a female business owner I get asked to do a lot of things. I think that often times you are filling a slot. I think that as we engage, as different demographics get added to different tables, it is up to us to really engage with groups so their voices are heard.  Since I have been doing it for a long time now, I feel that my role is to make sure younger people who are coming along and sitting at a table with a lot of old white men, that we give their voices a chance to speak and to be heard because that’s the future.

 

Susan Coghlin was born in Shrewsbury Massachusetts in 1962 and attended Shrewsbury High.  She then moved to Worcester at the age of 18 and took evening courses at various Worcester colleges.  She completed her MBA at Northeastern University. Susan took on the family business of electrical contracting at Coghlin Electrical in 1985 and become the owner in 2003. In this interview Susan discusses the growing challenges in Worcester and why she believes Worcester to be the wonderful and thriving community that it is.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 10/17/2018
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Mailman

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