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Q&A with ADS Advisory Council Member: Dr. Joel Domingo

October is Filipino American History Month, a time to celebrate the accomplishments and legacy of Filipinos in the United States. As it happens, the newest member of the Seattle-King County Advisory Council on Aging and Disability Services – which publishes AgeWise King County – is a proud Filipino American: Dr. Joel Domingo.

Domingo is Dean of the Research Institute and an Associate Professor at City University of Seattle, where he leads the university’s overall scholarship and research objectives. His work focuses on leadership development and civic capacity building for creating social transformation in the public and community nonprofit spheres. In addition to serving on multiple nonprofit boards and commissions, he has served as a fellow at the University of Washington’s Center on Human Development and Disability and in the Washington State Governor’s Office, helping develop community leadership skills in diverse communities across the state.

This month, AgeWise caught up with Domingo to ask him about his heritage and his work on the ADS Advisory Council.

Q: How did your experience growing up in a Filipino American family inform your values and career path?

I was born in the Philippines. As a child, my family and I emigrated to the United States in 1970. After a brief time in Hawaii, we made our way to Seattle and stayed with my father’s aunt who was quite involved with the work of the Filipino Community Center, so my early childhood was often shaped by the various events that we attended there.

Eventually, my parents settled in northeast Seattle where at the time only a few Filipino families lived. For the longest time, I was the only Asian kid in the neighborhood. However, we still maintained a strong sense of our heritage as we stayed quite involved with various Filipino community events and gatherings throughout the city even though many of those events took place further from our local area.

It was because of those influences of family and community that I decided to stay close to home when choosing to attend college. While there, I explored many options for my academic path and ultimately chose to major in psychology. I recall my family being disappointed at my choice of major and urging me to change direction to study engineering or even business, since those areas were the most practical routes to a successful career. But I believed deep down that I wanted something more than just a good career and sought to be a part of something beyond myself that made a difference for others and the world.

After earning my degree, I began my journey working in the education and community nonprofit space, which led me to further study in graduate school and then work with families and communities in the Washington State Governors Office. I ultimately ended up in academia because I wanted to share those lessons and experiences with students and “pay things forward.”

In my family, it’s an expectation that children take care of their aging parents since it was their parents who took care of them when they were young. That said, to this day, I believe that those formative experiences, coupled with a strong grounding to family and the classic immigrant story of my parents wanting a better life for themselves and me, are what shaped the work that I do now, in service to my students, and ultimately, to the community at large.

Q: What drew you to joining the Advisory Council for Aging and Disability Services?

I have been involved in several community boards and work in advocacy in a variety of settings. Regardless of the organization — whether it dealt with issues related to education, advocating for the neurodiverse population, or even building capacity with immigrant families — I noticed a common through line: a desire to amplify the voices of those who may not be generally heard to create systems of transformative social change.

One day, I came across an article in the local paper about healthy aging and my generation (Generation X). The author did a great job of highlighting many aspects of my generation which I immediately related to, and then referred to this notion of Seattle striving to be a great place to “grow up and grow old.” The author mentioned this group called the Aging and Disability Advisory Council and that part of its goal was to do just that. From that point forward, I wanted to find out more about the work of this group. I found that the Council was involved not only with healthy aging, but with other issues I had personal experience with, as I am the caretaker for my aging parents and for my daughter who has a disability. I wanted to learn as much as I could from others who had walked this similar road and see if there was a way that I could contribute and get involved.

Q: What are your goals and aspirations for the Advisory Council?

I’m humbled to be serving alongside some great people on the Advisory Council. One goal of mine is to learn about the various systems and organizations that deal with all the issues related to aging in our community. My hope is that as I learn about them, I can bring the intersection of my personal experiences and knowledge to help improve them so that even more people can benefit.

Additionally, I hope that my involvement can inform and even inspire others — particularly my generation as they begin to enter this world of middle and older adulthood — to realize that it truly is a privilege to get older and lean into the idea that aging, as someone once said, is just another word for living.

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The photo at the top appears courtesy of the Domingo family.

This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of AgeWise King County.