By Christina Fernández-Morrow, Hola Iowa Before becoming a Career Coach at the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families in Des Moines, Mercedes Morton was already familiar with the center’s affiliate, Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). She started in their English Language Learner classes and followed it up by graduating with an Associate degree a few years later. She became a professional medical and legal interpreter before taking on her newest role as a Career Coach. Her experience working as a legal assistant in family and immigration law provides valuable insight she uses to help refugees and immigrants, a large bulk of her clients. She enjoys her role because it allows her to help people with diverse backgrounds and there is no charge for her services, which makes her services accessible to the entire community. While she believes everyone can benefit from her assistance in writing resumes, preparing for interviews, and identifying job leads, she feels it is especially helpful to people who speak Spanish. “I want everyone to know we have this sort of center,” she says, recalling an encounter with a client who moved to Iowa and was impressed by the level of help she provided. “I know people who are Puerto Rican and moved here from Florida. They lived there for many years. They said they tell everyone to come to Des Moines because they don’t have these services in Florida.”
Thank you for this informative feature on Coaches Morton and Graney!