Business Women Awards 2022
Industry Leader Social Services/Nonprofit Katje Afonseca, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island
Katje Afonseca began her career at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island in Cranston as a college intern in 2004.
As a student at Johnson & Wales University, she took on a marketing internship, which segued into a job opportunity as the organization’s first marketing coordinator. She held this role for a few years before leaving to work at other organizations, eventually returning in 2013 to serve as director of development. Three years later, she was named executive director, and in 2020 the board changed her title to CEO.
Afonseca not only oversees the operations of the organization but also its subsidiary, the Big Sisters Fund, which is a separate nonprofit entity that is overseen by the same board as Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Through her leadership position, Afonseca manages a staff of about 50 full- and part-time employees. The organization also has about 150 pairs of mentors and mentees, known as Bigs and Littles, formed of adults who are matched with youths. There are generally two types of mentorships: community-based, where the pair enjoy community outings such as going to the theater, zoo or movies. And there are also site-based mentorships, where the pair meets at a certain location with support staff.
While working at a Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Fall River, Afonseca learned of a match where the mentor became ill and wasn’t able to continue in that role, so she stepped in, mentoring the same boy for five years.
“We remain connected,” she said. “As he’s become a grown man, he’s reached out on multiple occasions to say thank you.”
Afonseca says the ethos of mentorship that the organization encourages and supports in the community is also part of its culture.
“When mentorship is embedded in the work culture, there’s not a feeling of competitiveness in the workplace – there’s collaboration,” she said.
Afonseca describes the work culture as very supportive and collaborative, and very family-oriented.
“Work does not come first for me – my family does,” she said, adding that she doesn’t expect work to come first for her employees, either. “When we’re happy and whole at home, we do better at work.”
This attitude, she says, doesn’t hinder workplace achievement. On the contrary, it seems to support success.
“People constantly meet their goals, or exceed them,” Afonseca said, which she attributes to staff not having to worry about work-life balance or question the need to prioritize family.
Afonseca has had many mentors over the years. One that was especially noteworthy was a school nurse who, when Afonseca was 12, took her under her wing following the death of an older sister who was 16.
“A lot of people didn’t know what to do with me,” Afonseca said, noting that this nurse was “compassionate but firm.” As a result, her relationship to mentoring is quite personal. “Mentoring means so much because I had a traumatic experience in my childhood,” Afonseca said.
One thing Afonseca has observed in her time at Big Brothers Big Sisters is the integration period that comes with “acquiring employees who have worked elsewhere.” Often, she says, they are traumatized by previous workplace cultures and are afraid to ask questions or voice concerns for fear of getting into trouble. Among women workers especially, she has noticed a general lack of confidence. As a result, Afonesca makes sure all her employees know that as long as they are honest, remain positive and work hard, they will be successful, individually and within the organization.
Part of being a CEO, she says, is going it alone at times.
“For anybody in a top position at a company, it means we don’t have a lot of peers,” Afonesca said, which is why she’s cultivated a network of other CEOs with whom she can bond and go to with questions or lend support as needed.
“I feel I have a really strong support system in my husband and family,” Afonseca said, advising others in leadership roles to “develop those support systems” in whatever way is best for them.
