Work

“Work” is a value-laden term that has changed drastically over time, particularly in relation to women’s daily lives. Despite a legacy of opinions to the contrary, WWHP views women’s work as inherently valuable, whether taking place in the formal structure of paid employment or the private realm of home and family. We seek to understand each woman’s work on her own terms in her own words.

Carol Shulman

Registered Nurse

I loved mentoring new nurses. I loved telling them every trick of the trade, and everything they can forget about, and make them fast, and make them smart. Precepting was really something I really loved.

Carol Anne Shay Shulman was born in1943 in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was raised in an Irish Catholic home with three siblings. Carol met her husband Joseph dancing the night away. They had three children together and although Joseph was Jewish, the kids were raised Catholic as Carol hoped. Together they created a loving home and today all of their children are successful with kids of their own. Unfortunately, Carol’s husband passed away at the age of fifty-nine and she became widowed. Carol is a very compassionate person, and she displayed her compassion throughout her work experience.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 10/17/2018
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Barbara Morton

Regional Director, State Department of Youth Services, Worcester County

Now I just think we need to look at workplaces through an equity and justice lens and see if there’s bias there. And if it is there, I need to do a better job.

Born in 1959, Barbara Morton grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts in the Burncoat area. Barbara’s education consists of St. Peter Marian Central Catholic High School and then for college Barbara went to UMass Amherst and then postgraduate school at Suffolk University. Barbara is the Regional Director for the State Department of Youth Services for the Worcester County which she discusses her passion for in this interview. She stresses in the interview that it is important to start talking about difficult conversations and helping people.

Interview Date: 
Fri, 10/12/2018
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Breanna Goodrow

Owner/Creative Director, Studio DiBella

I decided that in my thirties—I turned 30 this year—that I wanted to have my own business. I'd always admired people who ran their own business and I read a lot, tons of interviews on ‘how do creatives have their own business’? How do you make the leap from working for someone and having full-time security to being out on your own? And everyone seemed to be able to figure that out by their early thirties and they never talk about it an interview, but they seem to get it together. I've just always had it in my mind, that I'm going to get it together to do that in my thirties. So somehow, I did that magic and .... it's just nice to close out this time of leading from within a company to going to lead out on my own, as my own proprietor so to speak. 

Breanna Goodrow was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1989. She lived in Worcester for the first five years of her life and then moved to Holden, Massachusetts, a town directly next to Worcester. She attended Worcester Arts Magnet before moving and then attended elementary school in Holden as well as middle school and high school. After high school, Breanna got into her top choice college and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In New York she interned with fashion designer Michael Nash. That was the first of many including Inside Edition and Seventeen magazine.

Interview Date: 
Tue, 02/26/2019
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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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Valerie Cohen

Senior Rabbi, Temple Emanuel Sinai

I am, in a one-liner my friend wrote an article about, which is the best line I ever heard, “I am, it is an honor and it is humbling to be invited into people’s lives at the highest moments, the most joyful moments, and the lowest moments.” And I get to do that. People invite me in because of my position and it’s really an honor and humbling.

Valerie Cohen was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1971 and currently lives in Holden Ma with her husband, daughter and son. In this interview she reflects on being a rabbi at the Temple Emanuel Sinai as well as a mother and wife. Valerie explains moving from state to state due to the extreme demands of her job as a rabbi. Valerie is the Senior Rabbi overseeing much of what the synagogue does. She explains working 60-80 hours a week just to cover the demands of the job. Valerie elaborates on her education at the University of Florida and the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

Interview Date: 
Fri, 10/05/2018
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Amanda Collins Bernier

Editor, Baystate Parent

Before I met my husband I was engaged to someone that I had known growing up, and he died from cancer when we were twenty-four. So that definitely has had a big impact on my life. And I took care of him. I quit my job. I got my first job at the Charlton Villager, and he found out he was really really sick, and I quit my job and took care of him. That’s definitely the biggest health thing that has impacted my life.

Amanda Collins Bernier, Baystate Parent editor, was interviewed on October 9, 2018 at the Worcester Magazine Office. Amanda was born in 1986 in California and now is the editor of Baystate Parent Magazine and works in the Worcester Magazine office in Worcester. Amanda is a very passionate mother, worker and communicator. She has worked her way up through the media ladder, from working at a small-town newspaper to being the editor of a major Massachusetts magazine.

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Tue, 10/09/2018
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Filomena Cesareo

Lawyer, Spouse of Assumption College president

I can’t even tell you what triggered it, besides my mom telling me that I liked to argue, but I always said, “I’m going to law school, I’m going to be a lawyer.” I [now work] in estate planning , where I don’t even see a courtroom.  Estate planning is very detailed work…but I think it gives people peace of mind…It just makes people feel like, “Okay, I know when I leave, everything is taken care of, I don’t have to worry about that.” [My children] saw my work ethic because they knew a lot of times when they went to bed, I was going to work [at home]. It was probably the best fit ever, because I was able to work from home when my kids were little.

Filomena Cesareo was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1964 to Italian immigrants. She is the second of three daughters and attended Albertus Magnus College in New Haven. During this time, she studied business and political science and met the man who would later become her husband. After graduation, Filomena continued her study of political science as a law student at

Interview Date: 
Thu, 03/21/2019
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Charisse Murphy

Director, YOU,Inc.

Support networks and mentoring are my entire existence. There is no way I could do half the stuff that I do without a support network. And now I have turned the page and am being a mentor to other young women.

Charisse Lynn Murphy was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1980. She became a director at YOU, Inc. in Worcester in 2008. When Charisse was small, she grew up as if she were an only child. Her parents separated, and her siblings were much older than she. Those siblings already lived on their own.  She was said to have an old soul as she was raised by her mother, who is 40 years older than she. At present, she has her own family with four children, and is working as the director of development at YOU, Inc.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 03/27/2019
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Mallory Mason Sakats

Co-owner, ENT Billing; Boston Marathon Runner

So I was right on Hereford when they pretty much stopped us; we didn’t know what was going on. From my perspective it sounded like when you hear a large truck that backfires, that’s kind of what it sounded like to us.  They weren’t telling us anything. We were just literally stopped there for, I would say, I don’t know, time is hard to reflect on at this point, it seemed like twenty minutes.  I told my friend she had to go back, she needed to get out of there, she needed to kind of go back and tell our friends, and we heard that there might be a bombing, there might be suspects on the loose, we were hearing lots of different things.  So then they told us to leave the scene.  As you can imagine, they jammed all the cell service, so no one could really get in contact with each other. We kept trying to call my mom. We walked all the way around, I’m not sure how familiar you are with Boston, but around the Charles River there’s all these paths, so we tried to cut over away from the road along the Charles to then cut back in past the finish line to find my mom because Dana Farber had a meeting spot at the Boston Marriot Hotel. In my delusional mind, I figured we would meet there. Well, obviously we couldn’t get in there. It’s been an hour, I’ve already been running for four hours, limping beyond belief, so injured, so cold in my sweat, they basically told me to route back and walk back to my apartment which was on the Brookline-Boston line, about two miles back.  So we walked back.  It was, it still is, a very surreal thing to talk about, it doesn’t seem like it happened. It was a very, very weird time, and running in the subsequent year was both cathartic and very nerve wracking, but I think that’s something that I needed to do to move past that day.

Mallory Mason Sakats is the co-owner of ENT Billing, a medical billing company in Worcester, MA.  In this interview she describes mentors that assisted her along her educational and career path, the pros and cons of being a business owner, and how she navigates balancing work and motherhood as a new mother.  She also shares her firsthand experience of being a marathon runner in the 2013 Boston Marathon, the year of the Boston Marathon Bombing.

Interview Date: 
Thu, 03/14/2019
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Susan Paradis

Owner, Parker's Candy Store

I like it because I'm seeing generations come back and it's just nice, it’s rewarding, it’s a happy store.

Susan Paradis was born in Worcester in 1972. Susan’s family owned a candy store when she was a child but they eventually sold the store. Susan reopened it on her own when she was older, bringing Parker’s Candy Store, a staple to West Boylston, back to the town. In this interview, Susan discusses what her life was like when she was a child living with her dad. She then moved to live with her mother and stepdad in the town of West Boylston where she lived for most of her life.

Interview Date: 
Wed, 03/27/2019
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