New Staff Spotlight: Aturena Somo

Aturena Somo discovered that she enjoyed working in human resources after college, but it wasn’t until she owned a business that she realized that’s what she was meant to do.

Aturena started her new position as human resources generalist for the Northbrook Park District in May.

Aturena grew up in Northbrook, graduated from Glenbrook North High School and majored in economics at the University of Illinois Chicago .

Her first position was as payroll associate for a medical waste management company, where she worked closely with human resources information systems. She then took a job as human resources coordinator for a company that sold microphones, where she experienced the full gamut of working within the human resources field.

Then, having always wanted to own a business, she decided to pivot and open a nail salon in Highwood. After weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, Aturena sold her business four years later when she realized that what she relished most about running it was its human resources aspect.

She worked as a human resources generalist for a nonprofit entity in Chicago for about a year before joining the park district.

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