Kim Korona: Creating community for positive change

Kim Korona is a graduate of our M.Ed. program at the Institute for Humane Education and a friend and colleague. Kim doesn’t usually like to make waves. She’s so kind and caring and avoids conflict with people assiduously. But she’s also a changemaker and a humane educator. This fall she moved to Brooklyn, New York, to be a humane educator for HEART, offering humane education programs to schools throughout the city. She moved into an apartment that had a host of problems, from smoke and a build up of soot from an improperly functioning boiler, to lack of fire and carbon monoxide alarms. She brought up the problems with her landlord, to no avail. Kim had some concerns about her own health, but when she also began to learn about the problems her neighbors were having, which included severe symptoms ranging from headaches and migraines, to nose burns, excessive coughing, black mucus, and sore throats, Kim took action. She contacted her neighbors, co-wrote a stern but honest petition to the management for them to sign, and launched change. The problems have been fixed.

MOGO (doing the most good and least harm for all people, animals and the earth) often means facing problems head on with clarity, conviction and tenacity. It means joining with others, creating community, and making systems change. This is often the kindest approach, even though it can be challenging to those inclined to avoid conflict.

Kim has demonstrated to me that even the kindest person, most averse to interpersonal conflict, can embrace the MOGO principle so fully that she models her message for kindness, creates community, takes responsibility, and works for change simultaneously.

~ Zoe Weil President, Institute for Humane Education Author of Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life humaneeducation.org zoeweil.com