Capitol Spotlight: Dominique Donette

If anyone could say they have risen above their rough beginnings, it’s Dominique Donette.

The 38-year-old director of government affairs for a reconstituted EdVoice began her life at the kind of disadvantage most folks will never experience. Her father was violent; her mother a sex worker who gave birth to Donette in shackles while serving a bid in federal prison.

By the time she was 18, her mom had spent 10 years of her life in prison, and Donette had yo-yoed between her biological family and foster families throughout California and in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.

“I tell people I was born in Sacramento, but I was raised in a lot of places, and they’re like, ‘Oh, a military family?’” Donette said with a laugh.  “I’m like, ‘Not exactly.’ ”

Because she moved around a lot, Donette found herself in remedial classes, and she most definitely had no one encouraging her to further her education. But Donette found an escape in books and in school, which she loved. Despite her environment and trauma, she had a vision for another life for herself and that drove her relentlessly to aim higher.

By her early thirties, she had graduated with a double major from UC Berkeley, secured master’s degrees from Harvard and the Broad Institute, lived in France, Israel, Ghana, Cyprus and Turkey, studied dance in New York City and had started collecting the kind of grassroots advocacy experiences that now have her on that path to perhaps becoming a leader in education policy and reform.

Just don’t suggest that hers is a tale of individual achievement and glory. She doesn’t buy into the self-made mythos.

“I’m very much not a bootstrapper,” she told Capitol Weekly. “I understand I was extremely lucky.”

Donette credits her rise from a chaotic childhood to the influence of a series of mentors, including former NBA star and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson – she was a member of the first graduating class at his Sacramento High charter school in 2004 and later worked for his nonprofit – and Marshall Tuck, the California education leader who took the reins of EdVoice in 2022 and shifted its focus to children from low-income communities.

“I called her just a couple of months after I took the job,” said Tuck, Donette’s boss, who got to know her when she worked on his first campaign for state superintendent of public instruction in 2014 (which he lost to the incumbent, Tom Torlakson). “She’s just a phenomenal relationship builder,” Tuck said.

Since starting with EdVoice in 2023, Donette’s top priority has been getting legislation passed to ensure that California teachers are trained in what’s known as the science of reading and that written materials given to students are aligned with that body of research.

In 2024, EdVoice ran a bill on the subject, AB 2222 by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) but it failed to get off the ground. Tuck said that failure didn’t deter Donette, who he praised for developing the kind of steely persistence that’s essential to succeeding in politics.

“I think she sees a lot of her mission based on her journey,” he said.

This year, EdVoice again got Rubio to sponsor a bill on literacy and the science of reading – AB 1121 – but at the urging the Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), the proposal’s essence was moved to AB 1454.

“She’s overcome so much…Because she’s had so many challenges … she just digs in and finds another gear.”

The new bill, sponsored by the Speaker, Rubio and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, (D-Torrance) passed out of the Assembly in early June and then the Senate Education Committee on July 9th. It should be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee in August.

Tuck attributed the bill’s success in part to the coalition Donette built to back it, a coalition that includes NAACP and the ACLU’s Smart Justice campaign, both novel supporters of an educational proposal.

Tuck pointed to Smart Justice’s inclusion as an example of Donette’s creativity and entrepreneurial moxie in coalition building. He said Donette thought to bring in Smart Justice, an anti-recidivism campaign, because prisons are home to some of the highest levels of illiteracy in our society.

“That’s not something everyone would have seen,” Tuck said, noting that political coalitions often have to move beyond the obvious candidates to build something successful. “She understands policy and politics,” he said.

Indeed, attorney Carolyn Veal-Hunter, who serves as the political action chair and treasurer of the NAACP California-Hawaii State Conference, said Donette’s grit and passion for making a difference seem to fuel her creativity, driving her to find solutions when others who are less invested might give up.

“She’s overcome so much,” said Veal-Hunter, who was on the team that hired Donette at the NAACP, where she worked before EdVoice. “Because she’s had so many challenges … she just digs in and finds another gear,” she added.

“She does a great job of building relationships….“and that’s not necessarily something folks in her arena are known for.”

Veal-Hunter extolled Donette for her exceptional kindness, saying she was the type of person who would give you the shirt off her back without any concern for herself. While she worries that Donette’s benevolence could be taken advantage of in politics – “It’s OK to be a little tougher,” she said she advises Donette – she also said it makes her an exceptional advocate.

“When people meet her,” Veal-Hunter said, “they want to know more about her.”

Tuck agrees, noting that many people in politics can be pessimistic or sarcastic, snarky or angry, all things Donette is not. Tuck described her as good natured and positive, attributes that make “people want to work with her and get behind her and support her.”

Donette says she’s passionate about education policy and enjoys collation building and the other work involved turning a bill into law. But she said she also believes it’s crucial to remain connected to the community, not just lose yourself in the halls of the Capitol.

“One of my critiques of policymakers in the past was that they were removed from the work,” she said, adding that she feels responsible to investigate whether the policies she’s advocating for are doing right by people. “I could move through life thinking my perspective is the best one or the right one, but from a personal values standpoint that’s not where I’m at,” she said.

That’s why in addition to her work for EdVoice, she volunteers, on her own time, with children and for organizations like the Sacramento Literacy Foundation.

“Dominique, she cares a lot about the community. She’s engaged,” said the foundation’s executive director, April Javist, who first got to know her last year as Donette was building support for AB 2222.

Javist said she appreciated that Donette distributed books at schools and volunteered to talk to parents on the street about literacy because that helps to build a crucial bridge between policy advocates and grassroots community advocates who often don’t have strong relationships outside of supporting a particular bill.

“She does a great job of building relationships,” Javist said of Donette, “and that’s not necessarily something folks in her arena are known for.”

In fact, Javist said Donette is “a community person” first, “a policy person” second.

“Dominique is a good example of what happens when you diversify the people involved,” she said.