Katje Afonseca is the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island and The Big Sister Fund, collectively known as BBBSRI. The two 501©3 non-profit organizations have one mission, to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.
Katje join BBBSRI in 2003 as a marketing intern finishing her Bachelor’s Degree at Johnson and Wales University. She later returned to eventually become Executive Director in 2015. Under her leadership BBBSRI has improved and increased their service delivery, grown their endowment, and streamlined their operations resulting in BBBSRI’s gross profit margin going from 3% in 2015 to 13% in 2020. The organization has been named “Best Places to Work” by Providence Business News in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and received the 2020 PBN Diversity and Inclusion award as well as Rhode Island Monthly’s Best Places to Volunteer 2021. Known for her top Gallup Strength of Strategic, Katje led BBBSRI through its first formal 3 year strategic plan, which kicked off in January of 2020.
Katje has served on the Board of FabNewport and currently serves on the RISE Women’s Leadership Advisory Council. She was a Big Sister mentor for five years, is a graduate of Leadership SouthCoast and Leadership Rhode Island and was named one of PBN’s Forty under 40 in 2016.
Having worked in youth mentoring for 18 years and serving as a Big Sister, Katje’s first-hand experience with the power and impact of youth mentoring has been the force behind her success in the field. Becoming a first-time mother and Executive in the same year lead to a passion for creating a work environment where employees feel valued as individuals and don’t feel that their home and work lives have to compete, but rather that they can exist in tandem.
Katje lives in Rhode Island with her two young daughters and husband, Donaldo.