Project Manager & CHW Instructor
Contact: jfernandez@communitywi.com
Jaenia is a lead Instructor of CWI’s 80-hr Core Competency training, and does much of the behind-the-scenes work to assure that the training participants receive the support necessary to succeed in the courses. She brings her graphic design skills and full extroverted self to every aspect of this work. The perspective to her work is informed through her lived experience as a Latina in an immigrant family who was raised in a predominantly white rural community in Central Massachusetts.
She currently serves on the CHW Core Competency Curriculum Committee at Boston Adult Technical Academy (BATA), a Boston public high school for adult students from 18 to 21 years of age. In November 2023, Jaenia began working part-time at BATA as an instructor in their innovative CHW training program. She also works with the BATA curriculum design team to customize the course for students who are primarily English language learners who study while holding jobs to help support their families.
Her past experience includes over a decade as a frontline worker and manager in the food service industry. She discovered her passion for healthcare through studying to become a certified medical interpreter. In 2019, she entered the community health field as a program coordinator at the Center for Health Impact, where she divided her time between supporting the CHW and CHW supervisor trainings and working as a CHW in their research program, where she lead community engagement efforts to recruit and retain a diverse group of standardized patients in partnership with UMass Medical School.
Jaenia holds an Associates Degree in Liberal Studies from Mount Wachusett Community College and is certified in Medical Interpretation in Spanish. She is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.
Jae loves introducing the CHW field to people who, like her, have been natural helpers much of their lives but unaware this profession existed. She especially enjoys helping immigrants working in restaurants discover meaningful health careers. She adores her 3 pampered kitties who love to climb on her head and shoulders during ZOOM meetings.