It’s been nearly a year since Dominique Albrecht was appointed Assistant City Manager of Coronado but that doesn’t mean her efforts to serve the community have waned.
Albrecht has been with the City of Coronado since 2016, starting as a Senior Management Analyst in the City Manager’s Office. Before she began her work in Coronado she worked for the County of San Diego in the Department of Housing and Community Development. She also worked on a U.S. Senate Commission focused on health care policy before making the move to San Diego with her husband.
Coming from a background in policy, working in the City Manager’s Office was Albrecht’s introduction to city government.
“What I really enjoyed about city government, and about Coronado specifically, is the sense of community and that people really, truly care about where they live and wanting to make it better.” she said. “I will say everybody that I’ve talked to and worked with here has that mind frame of wanting to make a difference for their community and that’s not something that is necessarily common, where you have a community that is as engaged.”
Originally from Gaithersburg Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., Albrecht said she grew up surrounded by individuals who worked in government.
“I came from a pretty civically minded area,” she said. “Growing up in elementary school, a close friend of mine, her dad was the city manager. So I got to see early on that it might be an interesting job.”
Although she didn’t know that working in city government was something she wanted to do, she was always a part of clubs and organizations that sparked her various interests. She joined student government, model U.N., mock trial and Red Cross Club in high school and was also involved in volunteer work.
“The things that really stuck out to me were where we were doing volunteer work or where we had the ability to interact with the community around us,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily think at that moment, ‘I’m going to spend my life in public service,’ but I realized I most enjoyed it when we were doing service projects, and making community connections.”
Albrecht was able to follow her passion for connecting with a community in her professional life as well as her education. She said she recently completed a certificate program for public engagement at the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning about all the ways that we can outreach to the public,” she said. “How we can make sure that we’re getting our community involved, what’s the spectrum of public engagement and outreach and how to do that more effectively and efficiently.”
Albrecht is still involved in volunteer work and spends some of her time volunteering at the Hyperemesis Education and Research Foundation, an organization that’s focused on helping women who suffer from a pregnancy disorder called hyperemesis gravidarum.
In the time she spends away from the office, Albrecht said she enjoys taking walks down to Glorietta Bay Park where she can enjoy the views of the bay or take her two children to the park and playground.
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