Meet Marcos Gomez | Director, Student Financial Services – Owens Community College

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marcos Gomez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcos, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I am from the Toledo area in Ohio, born and raised, and I currently work as the Director of Student Financial Services at Owens Community College.

My upbringing and my early life led me to my current career in higher education. My maternal grandmother was an elementary school teacher, and she began instilling the value of education into me, my siblings, and my cousins very early on. Since I grew up in a single-parent household, my mother sent me to the elementary school where my grandmother taught – this helped to assure I had both before- and after-school care. I recognized that it was a privilege for me to have this built-in care (most kids did not have this), and I learned a lot by observing how hard my grandmother and her teaching colleagues worked for their students outside of teaching hours. These lessons stuck with me and shape how I approach my work today.

When I was in high school, I began questioning whether college was the right choice for me. I struggled between heeding my grandmother’s guidance about the value of education, and the more practical life lesson that I had to get right down to work and make money to support myself. As I went through high school, pragmatism won out and I began studying in a vocational program. My vocational studies taught me the importance of professionalism and provided me with many of the power skills I carried forth into my career.

After I finished my vocational training, I realized the story of my educational career was not over. But, since I did not take the traditional college prep pathway, I felt at a disadvantage when it came to college admission. So, I thought outside the box on how to navigate the system, and I paved my pathway to a degree through community college (indeed, I studied at the same community college where I work today). That pathway eventually led me not only to a bachelor’s degree through the University of Toledo, but also to a law degree through Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. I learned a lot about initiative, motivation, creativity, and perseverance through my non-traditional college pathway, and I am fortunate to be positioned to share these lessons with the next generation.

Overall, my personal experience navigating the educational system shaped my approach as someone who leads within such a system today. To me, it is vitally important to create and perfect an accessible, equitable system and to use my voice and any resources to which I have access toward that end. To me, it is deeply important to leave the world in a better position than I found it. As long as I am fortunate enough to be in a position of leadership, I will continue to work toward improving conditions for the leaders of tomorrow.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think what sets me apart from others is the winding and non-traditional road I took to get to my current career in higher education. Much of my personal experience with the educational system led me to this industry, but it was my life circumstances that shape my approach to leading within it. I earned a bachelor’s degree in communication/public relations, and I earned a law degree after that. When I started my professional career, I set my sights upon being a practicing attorney, and I was for a period of time. However, I quickly found that I felt unfulfilled and that something was missing, and that missing piece was how my work reached, shaped, and impacted my community. It wasn’t until I began working for an English-language program as an international student advisor that I found the missing piece.

Switching careers was not easy – I struggled with feelings of failure after leaving the legal field. After all, I worked so hard to become a lawyer to just leave the field behind. But, once I began researching and learning about the myriad folks that left law to work in legal-adjacent career fields, I became more comfortable with the decision. Indeed, I began to see the strengths in pivoting and bringing my skill set to a non-legal field. I view my skill set and my experience as an asset – without it, I do not think I would have gotten to a leadership position as quickly as I have. My legal background taught me a lot about strategy, public policy, project management, and storytelling, and I think these are all important skills to bring to the higher education system.

Overall, it was more important to me to be fulfilled than to follow a pre-ordained path. I can truly say I have found that fulfillment in my work within higher education. Had I not become comfortable with the unknown, thought outside the box, and tried something new, I may never have found my path to fulfillment!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
One of the best things about northwest Ohio is the wonderful mix of natural beauty and local culture. I think these traits are easily overlooked! High on my list of experiences would be the Toledo Metroparks. I would be eager to show off the walking trails and all the beautiful plant and animal life! I find the walking trails to be a great place to decompress and practice mindfulness, and I hope my friend would too. Next, I would pick a range of local food and drink places to show my friend, such as Tony Packos, Pizza Papalis, Swig, PerrysBurgers, Fifth Street Pub, Calvino’s, Cocina de Carlos, Cinco de Mayo, etc. The Toledo area offers so many options, so I think I would have to approach by asking my friend what type of food they wanted and narrow it down. I would also take them to the Toledo Zoo, to see a couple local theatre productions by Perrysburg Musical Theatre and Stone Productions, the Toledo Museum of Art, and if time allowed, to see some of the more outlying sights such as the Armstrong Air and Space Museum, the Hayes and Harding Presidential Libraries.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First, I would like to thank my mother, Margaret Burgan, and my aunt, Mary Burgan Selleck, for their support and encouragement over the years. I would also like to thank my late grandparents, Marlyn Burgan, John Burgan, and Margaret Tello Gomez, for the empathy and grit they gave me.

My partner, Anthony Covatta, deserves his own shout-out for being such a cheerleader and rock star. He encourages me and helps me to see the best in myself. I am grateful that he is part of my life. I am lucky to have someone who challenges me to see things from a different point of view and to think outside the box.

Image Credits
Tasha Hussain Black, Andy Woodard, James Schuller