Hawa served her beloved country “Liberia” by working in the Personnel Department of the General Services Agency (GSA) as an executive secretary to the personnel director at GSA beginning in 1974, then transitioned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as secretary assigned to various Assistant Ministers, Senior Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Attaché (Executive Assistant to the late Ambassador Harry Moniba) at the Liberian Embassy stationed in London, England in 1982 until 1985 when she migrated to the United States of America with her family. In 1988, Hawa began her secretarial career in America working for the City of New York Department of Probation until 2011, then transitioned to the Department of Education with the Division of Instructional and Information Technology until her retirement on June 2, 2017 with a career spanning 43 unbroken years. On September 9, 2018, Deacon Barkon was ordained to the office of Deacon with the New Life Church of Staten Island, Inc., where she served as the program coordinator & also served as the secretary under the leadership of Deacon Helen Hutchinson of the Women’s Department & a member of the Planning Committee.