At our Annual Meeting this past November, Marlén Mendoza was inducted as one of our new Board members. We sat down to get to know her better and see what attracted her to Global Ties Iowa.
Marlén is from Chicago, IL and came to Iowa City to attain her undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa. After graduating, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked in a policy and research role for a few years before coming back to Iowa City. Since returning to the Midwest, she has started her own consulting business and has gotten involved with various organizations to give back to the community. She loves to travel and experience many cultures, so through her community service and organizational involvement she works to bring cultures together and provide opportunities for everyone, especially Latin and African American communities. Although Marlén is extremely busy with her entrepreneurial affairs and her involvement with organizations, she still found room to become a leader at Global Ties Iowa!
Marlén first became aware of Global Ties Iowa through the grapevine, hearing a little bit about the organization through other people. After hearing about a volunteer opportunity for our delegation from Mexico, she felt drawn to this opportunity because of her Mexican culture and background and because she wanted to learn more about what Global Ties Iowa was all about. After volunteering with this delegation, she saw how impactful Global Ties Iowa was and how fun it was to meet with people from different cultures, and she immediately knew she wanted to get involved further.
As mentioned earlier, Marlén loves to travel. India has a special place in her heart and she feels as though she can fit into the culture well because it reminds her a lot of her Mexican culture. When she’s there, she doesn’t feel like a tourist, which allows her to experience the culture more and integrate herself into the population. She can’t wait to go back and is looking for more opportunities to travel abroad. She is anxious to visit Egypt because she would love to see all of the monuments and learn more about the history that accompanies them.
To de-stress, Marlén finds that going on walks and daydreaming keeps her grounded. Since she is very occupied during the day with her various roles, she likes to be by herself and let her mind take over to relax. She also loves indie films, high quality art, and reading psychology/history books. She is constantly learning and experiencing new things so that she can take those things and apply it to her daily tasks.
Marlén brings a fresh perspective to Global Ties Iowa, and with her wide network, she can bring in several different organizations and businesses to help make each delegation's visit special. Particularly, she would love to bring in new site seeing opportunities for upcoming delegations. She is so excited to begin her time as a board member at Global Ties, and we are so lucky and happy to have her. Welcome aboard, Marlén!
Read Marlén's full professional bio here, and stay tuned to learn about our other new Board members!