Outstanding Mentor | Kathleen Malin, Rhode Island Foundation
Kathleen Malin, vice president of technology and operations management at the Rhode Island Foundation, has been with the nonprofit for 13 years, managing facilities, juggling logistics and meeting evolving challenges.
It’s a busy role.
But throughout her 30-year career – mainly in schools – she has managed to mentor hundreds of students and colleagues. Her dedication to serving as a resource for others shows no signs of stopping.
She has mentored young children, elderly nuns and everyone in between, it seems, including teens and continuing-education learners.
Malin has mentored through the Rhode Island Foundation – the biggest funder of nonprofits in the state – the Women in Technology group through the Tech Collective; the Community Foundation Technology Leadership Group; CyberPatriots, a Woonsocket middle school group; and at Lincoln Technical Institute, to name a few.
Her mentees have turned into fans.
“I was trying to get back to the workforce after a sabbatical. She provided me direction and guidance,” wrote Abha Sharma of Amica Mutual Insurance Co. in her support of Malin for this award.
“I experienced firsthand her willingness to draw staff into her professional centers of influence,” said Shonte Davidson, who worked with Malin several years ago. “Kathleen enables her mentees to don the mentor cap, too. This is incredibly important, because in business we need to form reciprocal relationships.”
‘I experienced firsthand her willingness to draw staff into her professional centers of influence.’
SHONTE DAVIDSON, Mentee of Kathleen Malin
Reciprocal is how Malin sees the cycle of mentorship. She’s had several important role models and career teachers throughout her life and enjoys giving back. She recounts the wisdom she gained early on as an intern for Sister Marie Antoine, her college president at Immaculata University in Frazer, Pa., for example.
“From her, I learned how to run board meetings, work with VIPs, how to deal with people,” Malin said. It’s the kind of learning that can’t easily be garnered from a book or computer program, she said.
Malin loves learning in all its forms.
After college, she went on to earn two master’s degrees from New England College in Henniker, N.H., including an MBA.
“I’ve appreciated the value in not just learning a particular topic, but learning with people,” she said. Nuances are often part of this. She remembers having to change her communication style with one of her managers in her career to collaborate with him more effectively, for example.
“Part of it is just working with people on things like that. A lot of the time when I work with my mentees, it’s on how to better communicate what they need or how they are coming across,” skills she said aren’t always taught in technology courses.
Teaching or offering moral support to someone in a technology environment can be challenging, as there is so much to learn and so many constant changes. Malin understands those who are frustrated with new technological advances and is patient in working with them.
“I am calm, and my secret is that I read the instructions first,” she laughed. “I try and ease people into it.” Remembering that she once learned everything she teaches means she’s empathetic, Malin said.
She’s also a great sounding board and source of support.
Carrie Majewski of Trilix, founder of the Women in Leadership Nexus, has known Malin for two years, during which time Majewski formed the women’s leadership and empowerment group.
“I was unsure if I could do it while working a full-time job and not having access to investment dollars,” Majewski said. “Kathleen dreamed with me, listened to me, explored with me. She passed along the lessons she had learned. … She sponsored my first event. She mentored me in a way she knew I needed it.”
Meanwhile, a new intern will be starting at the Rhode Island Foundation soon, said Malin – offering yet another opportunity for her to share her unique brand of wisdom and generosity.
