Leadership Interview
Kay Hope:
Communications Consultant & Certified Black Feminist
MCH Leader Interview Report:
Introduction
For this Maternal and Child Health leadership interview, I spoke with Kay Hope, a communications specialist and consultant serving communities throughout Hawaiʻi. Kay helps individuals, organizations, and communities communicate their stories and inform the public about issues, events, and initiatives affecting them. Although her work extends beyond traditional clinical or public health settings, her experience demonstrates the importance of communication, advocacy, cultural responsiveness, and relationship-building within Maternal and Child Health.
The interview explored Kay’s training, professional experiences, current work, leadership philosophy, and recommendations for emerging MCH leaders. Her responses reflected a service-oriented approach rooted in Black feminism, Black liberation theory, Caribbean communal ethics, consistency, disability justice, and accountability. Her leadership also demonstrated several MCH leadership competencies and the five practices of exemplary leadership described by Kouzes and Posner.
Training, Experience, and Current Role
Kay currently works as a communications specialist and communications consultant. She described the community she serves broadly as the people of Hawaiʻi who want support telling their stories. Her role involves informing community members about what is happening around them and helping individuals and organizations communicate the importance of their work.
Kay identified higher education and the experience of living in communities different from her own as important preparation for her role. Exposure to different cultural and community contexts strengthened her ability to listen, adapt, and recognize that effective communication cannot be separated from the histories, values, and needs of the people involved.
Her entry into Maternal and Child Health began through work with a breastfeeding box service. The small business was designed to improve outcomes for breastfeeding families returning to work. Through this experience, Kay helped communicate the value of a service intended to address barriers faced by breastfeeding parents, particularly those balancing infant feeding with employment.
Kay later helped the business prepare for a venture capital funding opportunity. Although the company did not initially receive funding, her role was to help its leadership identify why the service was necessary, evaluate barriers preventing success, and clearly explain how the product addressed the needs of breastfeeding families. This experience illustrates how communication can support MCH programs by translating community needs into language that funders, partners, and other decision-makers can understand.
Leadership Philosophy
Kay described MCH leadership as beginning with listening to people who have direct and informed experiences related to birthing, pregnancy termination, breastfeeding, and providing support to families. She emphasized that leaders must adapt their work according to the cultural sensitivity required by each community and consider the full scope of people involved in maternal and child health, including those who support birthing people and families.
Her leadership is guided by Black feminism, Black liberation theory, Caribbean communal and collective ethics, and service. These frameworks shape her belief that leadership should not center the authority or visibility of the leader. Instead, leadership should support the people doing the work and create conditions in which communities can recognize their own power.
When asked how she builds trust, Kay responded, “I show the fuck up consistently.”
She added that she builds relationships by celebrating people and their accomplishments. Her response emphasized that trust is not created through statements of intention alone. It is developed through presence, reliability, encouragement, and sustained investment in other people.
Kay also expressed a strong commitment to servant leadership. She described leadership as “seeing yourself as working on behalf of the people helping you” and viewing oneself as being in service to the people one leads. She connected this perspective to Lao Tzu’s teaching that, when leadership is effective, people feel that they accomplished the work themselves.
Collaboration and Advocacy
Kay’s approach to collaboration involves intentionally placing herself in spaces where people are already gathering. She researches organizations and initiatives to identify opportunities for shared vision, uses digital tools to create connections, attends events hosted by different organizations, and subscribes to organizational communications so that she remains informed about the priorities, strengths, and concerns of different institutions and departments.
This approach demonstrates that collaboration requires preparation and active participation. Rather than waiting for organizations to approach her, Kay works to understand their goals and identify areas of alignment. Her use of both in-person relationships and digital communication also allows her to build connections across organizations and professional disciplines.
Her work with the breastfeeding box service provides one example of advocacy. She helped the business clarify the specific challenges breastfeeding families faced when returning to work and communicate how its product could respond to those challenges. She also helped identify the organization’s internal pain points and barriers to success. Although the funding application was unsuccessful, her contribution helped strengthen the organization’s understanding of its purpose, population, and proposed solution.
Challenges, Conflict, and Burnout
Kay identified artificial intelligence as one of the most significant challenges in her current communications role. AI presents concerns for communications professionals because it can affect how stories are created, who is considered an expert, and whether community narratives are represented accurately or ethically. It may also create pressure to produce content more quickly while undervaluing the relational, cultural, and interpretive skills required for responsible communication.
Kay’s reflections on conflict and burnout were especially significant. She explained, “I prepare for the fallout for when I disappoint people, because I will disappoint people because I will maintain my boundaries.”
She protects time on her calendar and schedule for activities and responsibilities that require her attention. She also leaves her phone and laptop in her office to create separation between her professional and personal life.
At the same time, Kay resisted presenting boundaries as a complete solution to burnout. She acknowledged that, as a Black woman, she is often expected to overperform and hold multiple roles to care for herself and meet professional expectations. Therefore, even when she maintains boundaries, burnout may still occur. Her response recognizes that burnout is not only the result of individual time-management decisions. It can also be produced by structural inequities, racialized expectations, economic pressures, and the unequal distribution of labor.
MCH Leadership Competencies
Kay’s experiences reflect several MCH leadership competencies, particularly communication, cultural responsiveness, interdisciplinary collaboration, self-reflection, and working with communities and systems.
Communication is central to Kay’s professional role. She helps individuals and organizations articulate their purpose, define the problems they seek to address, and explain how their services respond to community needs. Her work demonstrates that communication within MCH is not simply the transmission of information. It includes listening, interpretation, framing, advocacy, and ensuring that community experiences are represented accurately.
Cultural responsiveness is evident in her belief that leaders must adjust their approach based on the cultural context and the people involved. Living in communities different from her own helped her understand that leadership cannot rely on a universal or predetermined approach. Effective MCH leadership requires humility, attentiveness, and a willingness to adapt.
Kay’s approach also reflects interdisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration. She intentionally learns about the work of different institutions, attends community events, researches opportunities for alignment, and uses digital tools to strengthen relationships. These strategies help her identify shared priorities while respecting the distinct strengths and concerns of each organization.
Her discussion of disability accommodations reflects the MCH competency of working effectively with individuals and communities.
Kay argued that leaders must understand the people they lead and provide accommodations for disability. She stated that a person who cannot accommodate disability is unlikely to be an impactful leader. This position moves inclusion beyond symbolic representation and frames accessibility as a basic measure of leadership effectiveness.
Kay also demonstrated self-reflection through her acknowledgement of boundaries, burnout, and the possibility of disappointing others. Rather than presenting leadership as perfection, she described it as an ongoing process of making difficult decisions, recognizing limitations, and remaining accountable to both herself and the people she serves.
Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
Kay’s leadership philosophy reflects each of Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart.
Model the Way
Kay models the way through consistency, service, and alignment between her values and actions. Her statement that she builds trust by showing up consistently demonstrates that credibility is established through behavior. Her commitment to Black feminist and communal ethics also provides a clear foundation for her leadership decisions.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Kay creates a shared vision by researching organizations, learning about their concerns and strengths, and identifying opportunities for alignment. In her work with the breastfeeding box service, she helped the organization explain not only what it offered but why the service mattered to breastfeeding families. This type of communication allows collaborators and supporters to understand how their participation contributes to a larger purpose.
Challenge the Process
Her leadership challenges traditional hierarchical models that position the leader as the most important person in an organization. Instead, Kay insists that leaders exist in service to the people doing and supporting the work. Her emphasis on Black feminism, disability accommodation, cultural responsiveness, and structural contributors to burnout also challenges leadership approaches that ignore inequity or place responsibility solely on individuals.
Enable Others to Act
Kay enables others to act by helping people communicate their own stories, clarify their goals, and recognize the value of their work. Her reference to Lao Tzu reflects a belief that effective leaders do not claim ownership of collective accomplishments. Instead, they provide support, information, resources, and conditions that allow others to succeed.
Encourage the Heart
Celebrating people and their accomplishments is one of Kay’s primary strategies for relationship-building. This directly reflects the practice of encouraging the heart. Recognition communicates that people’s labor and contributions are seen and valued. In emotionally demanding fields such as MCH, celebration can also sustain motivation and strengthen collective commitment.
Advice for Emerging MCH Leaders
Kay’s central advice to emerging MCH leaders was that the performance of a team reflects its leadership.
She stated, “If your team is failing, it is a reflection of your leadership,” and repeatedly emphasized the need to “serve the people.” Her advice rejects leadership that prioritizes ego, control, or personal recognition.
Instead, she views leadership as a responsibility to understand people, provide appropriate support, remove barriers, and create conditions where others can contribute successfully.
This advice is particularly relevant to MCH because the field depends on relationships across families, providers, community organizations, public health systems, and policymakers. Leaders cannot achieve meaningful change without understanding the needs and capacities of the people around them.
Reflection
This interview reinforced my understanding that MCH leadership is not limited to clinical care or formal public health positions. Communications professionals also shape maternal and child health by determining how community needs are represented, whose stories are amplified, and whether organizations can clearly explain the value of their work.
The statement that stood out most to me was Kay’s description of trust: “Celebrate people and their accomplishments and show the fuck up.”
The directness of this response captures something that formal leadership models can make unnecessarily complicated. People are more likely to trust leaders who are present, consistent, and willing to recognize the contributions of others.
I was also struck by Kay’s honesty about burnout. Leadership discussions often suggest that stronger boundaries or better self-care can prevent exhaustion. Kay acknowledged the value of boundaries while also naming the structural reality that Black women are frequently required to overperform and carry multiple roles. This distinction is important because it prevents organizations from treating burnout as an individual failure while ignoring the systems that produce it.
Her emphasis on disability accommodations also expanded my understanding of leadership. Accessibility should not be treated as an additional service offered when convenient. A leader’s ability to accommodate people’s needs is connected to whether those individuals can participate fully, contribute their strengths, and experience dignity within an organization.
Overall, Kay’s leadership reflects a model grounded in service, cultural responsiveness, consistency, celebration, and collective power.
Her interview reminded me that exemplary leadership is not demonstrated by being the center of the work. It is demonstrated by helping people feel supported, capable, and able to recognize that the accomplishment belongs to them.
Edited Interview Transcript: Kay Hope
Interviewer: Amber Ward
Interviewee: Kay Hope
Topic: Maternal and Child Health Leadership
Format: Personal interview
This transcript was minimally edited for clarity, organization, and readability while preserving the meaning, voice, and language of the interviewee’s responses.
Amber: Can you tell me about your current role and the population or community you serve?
Kay Hope: I am a communications specialist and communications consultant. I serve the community of Hawaiʻi, particularly people who want to tell their stories. My work is about helping people communicate what they are doing and informing folks about what is happening within their communities.
Amber: What training, education, or lived experiences prepared you for this role?
Kay Hope: Higher education prepared me for this role, but so did living in different communities that were different from my own. Being exposed to different communities helped me to listen, understand different perspectives, and recognize that the way people communicate is connected to their culture and experiences.
Amber: How did you first become involved in Maternal and Child Health work?
Kay Hope: I worked with a breastfeeding box service. It was a small business created by an owner who wanted to improve outcomes for breastfeeding families who planned to return to work. That experience introduced me to some of the barriers breastfeeding families face, and the role communication can play in helping people understand why a service is needed.
Amber: What does leadership mean to you in the context of Maternal and Child Health?
Kay Hope: It means listening to people who have informed experiences related to birthing, terminating a pregnancy, breastfeeding, or supporting someone through those experiences. It means adjusting based on the cultural sensitivity that is required and being adaptable.
It also means including the full scope of people involved. You cannot only think about the person giving birth. You also have to consider the people supporting the birth and the people providing care to them.
Amber: What are the biggest challenges you face in your current role?
Kay Hope: AI.
Interviewer note: Artificial intelligence is changing communications work. There are concerns about who is telling the story, whether the story is accurate, and whether technology is replacing the cultural awareness and human understanding that responsible communication requires.
Amber: How do you build trust with families, communities, or organizational partners?
Kay Hope: I show the fuck up consistently.
I also celebrate people. That is how I build relationships. Those are the two main things: celebrate people and their accomplishments, and show the fuck up.
Amber: Can you describe a time when you had to advocate for a family, community, organization, or program?
Kay Hope: I worked with the breastfeeding box service when they were applying for venture capital funding. My job was to help them define why their service was necessary and how it could help breastfeeding families returning to work.
I supported them in evaluating their pain points and identifying the issues that were preventing their success. I also helped them summarize how their product offered a solution for the people they were seeking to support.
Even though they did not initially receive the funding, the process helped them become clearer about what they were offering, why it mattered, and how to communicate that to other people.
Amber: How do you collaborate across disciplines or organizations?
Kay Hope: I put myself where the people are. I research organizations and opportunities to identify where there may be a shared vision.
I also use digital tools to create opportunities for connection. I attend events offered by different organizations so that I can familiarize myself with their concerns and strengths. I subscribe to their content so I know what is happening within different institutions and departments.
You have to understand what people are already doing before you can identify where collaboration is possible.
Amber: What values guide your leadership?
Kay Hope: Black feminism! Black liberation theory, Caribbean communal and collective ethics, and service.
My leadership is grounded in the understanding that the work is not supposed to center the leader. It should be about the community, collective responsibility, and serving the people involved.
Amber: How do you handle conflict, burnout, or difficult decisions in your work?
Kay Hope: I prepare for the fallout for when I disappoint people, because I will disappoint people. I will disappoint people because I will maintain my boundaries.
I place boundaries on my calendar and schedule so that I can prioritize the things I need to have time for.
I leave my phone and laptop in my office and accept that people may be upset or disappointed when I am unavailable.
At the same time, I cannot minimize burnout because I am a Black woman. I often have to overperform. Even when I have boundaries, I can still experience burnout because I often have to hold multiple roles to take care of myself.
Boundaries matter, but they do not remove the structural realities that contribute to burnout.
Amber: What MCH leadership skills do you think are most important?
Kay Hope: Understand the people you are leading.
That includes accommodations for disability. If you cannot accommodate for disability, you almost certainly will not be an impactful leader.
You also have to see yourself as working on behalf of the people helping you. You should see yourself as being in service to the folks you are leading.
Lao Tzu says that if you are a good leader, people should feel like they did it themselves. Leadership should create the conditions for people to recognize their own ability and power. It should not be about the leader taking all the credit.
Amber: What advice would you give to emerging MCH leaders?
Kay Hope: If your team is failing, that is a reflection of your leadership.
Serve the fucking people, yo. A great leader is in service to the people. Serve the people. It is not about you.
Your responsibility is to understand the people you lead, give them what they need to contribute, and remove barriers that are preventing them from succeeding. You cannot blame the people you lead without first looking at how you have led them.
And do not abuse your people.
Do not use leadership to exploit people, intimidate them, silence them, overwork them, or treat them like they are disposable. Leadership gives you responsibility for people. It does not give you permission to harm them.
Serve your people. Celebrate them. Accommodate them. Show up for them. Do not abuse your people.
A key part: don't abuse your people.
End of Interview