‘I’ve always been goal-driven’

Kimberlyn Kay King-Hinds

Kimberlyn Kay King-Hinds looks at juggling a law career, civic duties, being a wife and mother all “a work in progress.” Multitasking may be dauting for most women but she believes that if you have a goal then you will have time and energy for everything.

“…Getting up in the morning and doing what I do every day is just how my parents raised us. …I was raised by very progressive single mother who entered the workforce at the age of 14 and went on to become one of the first women to serve in the 1st CNMI legislature. She later met my Dad who equally instilled the importance and value of service to the community ,” she said.

“If there’s a secret guide to success, I wish someone would share that with me because the older I get, the more I realize how little I actually do know. But in all seriousness, I’ve always been goal-driven and once I set my mind on completing a goal, I’m like a dog with bone. I’ll keep at it until I scratch it off my list. I don’t think there is a secret to success. It’s basically how much you want to accomplish something and what you are willing to do to get there,” she added.

For two years now, King-Hinds is the first woman to sit as board chair of the Commonwealth Ports Authority. “As chair, I am the contracting officer, which means I have a duty to review and sign off on all contracts, leases and other legal instruments on behalf of the board and the agency. …This requires a lot of reading and working with the CPA executive team and industry partners to understand the issues so that I can have a better understanding of how I can best serve CPA and the community,” she said.

King-Hinds said she only has one goal for CPA this year and that is to stay solvent without having to furlough or implement a “reduction-in-force” this year. “We are living through a time where there are so many unknown variables with an indeterminate time frame that it’s difficult to plan. ‘Wait-and-see’ has never been a sound planning model or revenue forecasting tool but yet here we are, with so many of our industry partners needing definitive answers with regards to rates and charges so that they can figure out how they can stay solvent,” she added.

Aside from CPA , King-Hinds is also involved in other cause worthy organizations. “I do a lot of community work but two things that I enjoy the most is coaching the Tinian High School Mock Trial team and being the co-founder of Friends of San Jose Church, Tinian. Tinian and Rota kids have a hard time when it comes to programs like mock trial because they don’t have access to resources that are readily available on Saipan. My husband and I volunteer to coach because we want Tinian kids to have some of these opportunities that allow them to see and learn about different paths that they can choose from as career opportunities,” she said.

Her biggest goal at the moment? To build a new Catholic Church on Tinian. “Together with three amazing human beings from Tinian, we formed Friends of San Jose Church Tinian to do just that. We completed the first phase of our project with the completion of the Tinian Social Hall and its subsequent turnover to be used as a temporary place of worship. We have started working on the second phase and we are just so blessed and so excited to be able to give back to our community in such a meaningful way,” she added.

King-Hinds recognizes that she won’t be able to do many things if not for the understanding of her family. “I feel as though I’m constantly sacrificing time with my family, especially my husband and daughter, to keep up with work and civic engagement. My daughter is graduating from high school this year and over the course of these last 17 years, I’ve been dragging her from one thing to another. I’ve missed so many of her games and activities because I’m either working or doing stuff for the community,” she said.

“I remember being her age and being so angry at my mom for not having the time that I wanted with her because she was doing the same thing I am doing now. …Finding that balance has been a challenge for me that has come at the cost of losing valuable time that I will never be able to get back with my husband and daughter. Fortunately for me, my daughter has grown to be a kind, loving, smart, beautiful, driven young woman despite my shortcomings as a mother and my husband, Chester, the coolest cat on the planet,” she added.

With all of the things that need to be done, King-Hinds is a busy woman who is also trying to keep it real. “…I have a lot of shortcomings and patience is not one of my virtues. I have the attention span of gnat on most days and try really hard not to be abrasive. …But all that is a work-in-progress and so I pray every day that my thoughts, my words, and my deeds are reflective of goodness and kindness,” she said.

“….I want to quit smoking, grow my private practice and hone into an area of law that I actually enjoy, spend more time with my family, curse less, be kinder than I was last year. …I hope that after someone meets me, I give them reason to believe that despite the craziness, there are people in the world who genuinely care,” she added.