Dana Dominguez

I attribute my success to my love for other humans. I've always been like that since I was a little girl. I just love people, and I always see the potential in our societies. I know that we're all born good, and that we can do anything if we just come together and move forward together. I think making the world a better place is just in my blood, and that's what drives me.

The best career advice I ever received was not to count myself out. It took me a long time to build the confidence to speak up and see myself in a leadership role, because I grew up very shy and quiet. When I got the job at the University of Iowa in 2011, I worked for the Chief Diversity Office and was surrounded by powerful women. I remember one day at a work meeting at a coffee shop, I felt so free, and one of my colleagues said, 'Dana, you belong here. You're part of this team, and you bring a lot of experience and opportunity, and don't ever count yourself out.' That really stuck with me, and I kind of pass it along too, because I see that in a lot of other young women that I come across on campus who don't believe they can do something or apply for something. I tell them, you never know unless you try.

Don't be afraid to try and take risks. Reach out to people when you need it. You don't have to be alone. Reach out to me if you need to.

One of the biggest challenges is juggling everything when you come from a working-class background. It's hard to get out of that cycle and move up to where you can pay the bills and put food on the table without having three jobs. I have three jobs right now, not even including my council position, which I consider volunteer work. I also take care of an elderly woman on the weekends when I'm needed to fill in. Getting out of that cycle of poverty has been a big challenge for me, because a lot of things that hold opportunity take financial investment or time, and those are things I don't have. If you don't have it, you have to take the time to fundraise, which means asking community members and taxpayers for more money, which I don't feel comfortable about. In the long run, though, my background is also a good thing, because I can stretch a dollar, I can make something into nothing, and I'm incredibly resilient. I know the struggle of a majority of my community members that I represent, so I think it allows me to connect with them on a different level that other folks might not have.

I always say integrity is number one. To me, integrity is doing the right thing, even when nobody's watching. It really drives my moral compass, and it's what I want to teach my children to do as well. Thinking about the future also plays a big role with children. I teach a class called Al Exito once a week in West Liberty for kids who will be first-generation going to college, from 5th graders through 8th graders, telling them about how important it is to succeed and preparing them for the real world. That really drives me - investing in our youth. Through LULAC, it's helping our youth understand how important it is to contribute to society through voting or public service. I also do that in my everyday job at the University of Iowa in the Women's Resource and Action Center, where we serve people of all genders but primarily women, providing free counseling and support for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, and doing activism, education, and violence prevention work. Making the world a better place is just in my blood, and that's what drives me.