Champion Spotlight: Iowayna Peña
By Joan Ryan
Each month, we will spotlight a Giants employee or initiative that embodies the organization’s values.
When we hear the words “inclusion’’ and “diversity,’’ more times than not our brains take us directly to race and sexual orientation. And more times than not, race equates with people of color, and sexual orientation equates with LGBTQ+.
Iowayna Peña, Director of Real Estate and Development at Mission Rock, is Black, Native American and identifies as a Lesbian. A policy-wonk at heart, she recently campaigned and won the nomination to be female co-chair of The Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club. Inclusion and diversity are personal for her. She has spent time in the trenches. She is well-acquainted with the intellectual, social, economic, political and activist perspectives of inclusion and diversity.
So, when I first envisioned writing about a Giants employee who brings our inclusion and diversity values to life, Iowayna immediately came to mind. I knew she’d have an important story to tell. And she did.
Just not the one I expected.
First some background. One of Iowayna’s former bosses compared her work skills to a Swiss Army knife. Give her a job, any job, and she’s ready to roll — athletic trainer, legislative aide, high school science teacher, media relations coordinator, policy analyst, and for much of 2020 during Covid-19, a disaster service worker for the City and County of San Francisco in the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood. She has a graduate degree in Kinesiology, with an emphasis in Exercise Science and Human Performance, from Cal State Fullerton.
In late 2020, Iowayna was recruited from the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development to join the Mission Rock team. She helped manage the vertical parcel development plans, in addition to special projects, such as the newly envisioned Mission Rock Academy, an innovative on-site, hands-on program that trains San Francisco residents looking to establish a career in construction. The Mission Rock team used the Academy to focus on underserved communities, particularly women of color.
The second week into training for the inaugural class, a student asked Iowayna a question that she couldn’t answer: Why wasn’t there a “mothering room’’ for nursing mothers and restrooms that weren’t Porta-Potties? Didn’t she know, the student asked, that pregnant women use the bathroom frequently, and that multiple trips to a cramped, unpleasant Porta-Potty made for a stressful day?
Iowayna didn’t know. She wasn’t a mother. It was a huge “aha’’ moment for her. She recognized that diversity and inclusion play out in infinite and unexpected ways. The lack of access to clean, decent bathrooms, and rooms in which to pump breast milk, were potential barriers to women choosing to go into the building trades, thus missing the opportunity for a stable career and better pay.
“We have such a huge population of expectant mothers (in America), but we don’t talk about what it means to make space for them when they return to the workplace,’’ Iowayna said.
Project leads had been advocating for a nursing room and restroom trailer for about a year, but there wasn’t much movement until the women at the Academy spoke up, and kept speaking up, whenever they had a general contractor or Mission Rock representative as an audience. Their voices empowered the project team as a whole, Iowayna says.
Early on in their apprenticeship, when the women arrived at Mission Rock, a new restroom trailer was waiting for them (and their male colleagues, too).
“We had a celebration,’’ Iowayna said laughing. “That trailer continues to be a big hit.’’
Soon the mothering room was opened. One of the general contractors felt the room needed to be more “inviting” so he added a lavender candle and a nice chair with a cushion.
People often talk about moments in their lives where an action that seems so small, in turn has a tremendous impact on them and others. This experience was one of those moments for Iowayna. She thinks back to the countless conversations it took to make these site accommodations a reality, and the response from not just the women working at Mission Rock, but the men, and the industry leaders who tour the site. It’s an action that reminds her how the little things really do matter, and these small moments, actions, words of encouragement, are each an opportunity to show up in support of a different perspective and make everyone feel welcome.
“There is a great quote by Audre Lorde,’’ Iowayna said. “‘Without community, there is no liberation…but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.’”
“I think when we as a society talk about fostering inclusion and embracing diversity, oftentimes the assumption is that a person must let go of their differences of opinion and morph into some glob of sameness,’’ Iowayna says. “The reality is that we are living around each other, and in many ways prohibit ourselves from talking about these differences with those impacted directly by them.”
“The experience was a beautiful reminder that we can all participate in fostering an inclusive environment without fully understanding, or being a member of the community we are trying to embrace,” Iowayna reflected. “I have deep appreciation for the community of mothers who told me their stories and shared their experiences. They are the ones who informed this process.”
Her appreciation did not stop there. “I was touched to witness the men who supported this change and were moved to action. There is great power and beauty in lifting others and sharing the shovel to build a new path.’’ And in this case, productive and accommodating spaces for the entire workforce.
