Her Story
About Dominique
Dominique Lubin is the Deputy Director of Operations at ACS, specifically within the Office of Special Investigation in New York, NY. She has dedicated her career to child welfare since joining the agency in 1998, beginning as a caseworker investigating cases of child abuse and neglect before advancing to supervisor level in 2004, supervisor level two in 2007, Child Protective Manager in 2012, and her current role in 2023. In her position, she provides oversight to a program with four managers reporting to her, focusing on high-profile cases involving foster parents, daycares, and celebrities while collaborating with attorneys and stakeholders. Lubin earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts with a psychology focus from City College after initially pursuing nursing, followed by a master's in social work funded by her agency, and she passed the LMSW exam to become a licensed master social worker. She attributes her success to her education, experience, and the guidance of mentors who helped her navigate the challenges of the work, including secondary trauma. Lubin values integrity above all in her professional and personal life, emphasizing the importance of treating families with dignity and respect. She has received a Child Advocacy Award from ACS for her contributions to the program.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dominique
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my education, my experience, but also my mentors who have really supported and guided me through the work, professionally and personally. Doing this work for as many years as you do it, you have that secondhand trauma, so my mentors were really important to me in really coaching and guiding me through how to handle the everyday, how to bring out the best out of me professionally, how to maintain in the work because it's very hard work.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice that I would give young women entering this industry is to be ready to really take on the challenges of this job with an open mind and an open heart. Working with children and families, you're basically going to be in the position where a child's life is in your hands. So you really want to be able to treat these children and these families with dignity and respect, you have to come in with that, and being very empathetic to the families that you are going to be servicing. Be open to the process, to be open to learning new things, and to seeing real life. Be prepared to really see real life and learn and develop and take that coaching, and to be part of a team, because you can't do this job alone at all.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges are that we can only do so much, unfortunately. We try our best. It would be great if you can save them all, but it's not the reality. You never want to lose a child to the system when you've done everything, put all the services in place, but the results you want are just not happening. Challenges with stakeholders whose missions are not aligned, and lack of resources especially for the teenage population. On the opportunities side, there's always opportunities for growth, for learning and training. The agency has really evolved in supporting our children and families but also supporting our staff, building a culture of safety science. ACS affords a lot of opportunities in terms of growth and movement within other departments.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
For me, the one that stands out the most is integrity. I think in professionally and personally you have to be a person of integrity. That's one of the values I talk about a lot even with my managers during coaching and supervision. We deal with a lot of families, right? And we want to be sure that we are treating them the best way we can.
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