April 7, 2025 • 15 mins
Anna Maria Campos is a Compliance Coordinator at Envoy/American Airlines and a Board Member of the Des Moines School Board. She is a finalist for the Courage Award.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Welcome to the Inspiring Women of Iowa podcast,
a special series
amplifying the stories of the Inspiring Women of Iowa Finalists.
Inspiring Women of Iowa is an annual event hosted by Girl
Scouts of Greater
Iowa with the goal of celebrating women of courage,
confidence and character who are making the world
(00:27):
a better place.
Why does that sound familiar?
Well, because it also happens
to be the mission of the Girl Scouts,
where they believe society is better because strong
women show girls that anything is possible.
This event was created by Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa in 2017
to celebrate women in our community
(00:48):
and share their stories, while raising support
for the Girl Scout programs
that build the next generation of inspiring women.
16 individuals are celebrated annually with the Courage,
Confidence, Character and Inspiring Advocate for Women Awards.
I'm your host, Sarah Noll Wilson.
I am a business owner, a champion of women, and I'm
(01:10):
also a proud Girl Scout alum.
So massive love to troop 238.
And I am honored to have the chance to speak with these amazing,
inspiring women and to share their stories with you.
Joining me today is
Anna Campos, who is nominated for the Courage Award.
(01:33):
She is the compliance coordinator
at Envoy American Airlines
and a board member of the Des Moines School Board.
Thanks for joining me, Anna.
Thank you for having me.
Okay, so, Anna, before we get into the work you do
and the impact you want to make, just
what else should we know about you as a human?
I am a mom of six.
(01:54):
Yes.
So four biological.
And then during Covid, after my youngest of the four
was in middle school,
we decided to take a journey and become foster parents.
So we saw a need
in Des Moines, with Latino
(02:15):
or non-American, foster children.
And so we decided we were going to do that.
That was right before Covid.
And then, we were planning on not babies.
We didn't want babies.
We wanted middle school or middle or elementary school age kids.
Covid happened.
I was working full time, so it's kind of hard to get those,
(02:38):
middle age, you know, the elementary school
foster kids,
because you would have to take time off
of work, things like that.
So we decided to do, like, littles
and then so out
of that we, adopted our son Luka, at three years old.
And then he had, baby sister,
(02:59):
and we got her at four days old.
Wow.
So now they are eight and three,
and those kids are just amazing.
I think they're they fit perfectly in our family.
I love that so much that already,
as people are listening
or watching this, you can already start to see, like,
(03:21):
Anna's heart and what's behind the work she does.
So.
So one of the things that we're asking
all of the people who are our finalist is,
you know, the fact that we all make an impact and,
and talk to us
about the impact
that you hope to make and what drives that for you.
So a
few years, It's been three years.
(03:43):
We had a tragic event happen in our family.
My 14 year old daughter was,
walking home from school,
and she was hit, on University
Avenue and 17th Street, just blocks away from our house.
And that was a week before her 15th birthday,
(04:08):
and it was a hit and one, hit and run situation.
And as a mom, you could do two things.
You can be down and depressed and go,
like, a really negative way.
Or you could do a positive way.
One thing that I saw, and I even saw it
before, because she wasn't the first one
(04:30):
injured on that street or in that area.
On University.
But she was the first one that lost her life.
And just growing up in that area,
I knew that was a dangerous spot.
And social media,
(04:50):
kind of helped me look into a different perspective of how
that road is not safe.
And I needed to do something because I didn't want another
mom to have to deal with what I dealt with.
That pain is just unbearable.
So I took it on to myself
(05:12):
and help with some family and friends to fight with the city.
And, I hate fight.
I don't like the word fight.
Yeah.
Advocate? Inform, educate.
Advocate. Yeah.
And work with the city on making these these streets safer.
For Des Moines.
(05:32):
And Carl Voss is one of the city council members.
Linda Westergaard is from the east side.
And she's helped me out too, but Carl Voss got me talking
to, people in DC.
It was, Vision Zero that he wanted to bring in
Des Moines to make the streets walkable.
And with all that work, we've gotten
(05:56):
that part of university down to a three way lane.
We've gotten the speed zones extended in the school.
The school zones.
And hawk lights
are going up around our schools to make our students safer.
And that's one thing because of that.
(06:16):
That's one thing that I found that I had my voice,
that I didn't. I never thought I was just a mom.
And I have always taught my daughters to defend themselves,
to defend others, and never be a victim.
And so now I had to show it, you know,
I had to practice where I preached. Right.
And so that that’s
(06:39):
why I ran for school board.
Yeah.
And, you know, safety is my life.
I am a compliance coordinator for a major U.S.
airline here in Des Moines.
And my job is to make sure
my staff is safe and our passengers are safe.
Yeah.
That is. That's incredible.
(06:59):
Can you do me a favor?
I mean, there's a lot that I'm like, oh,
What what what is your daughter's name?
Because as we've been talking
with people who have lost, I'm like,
I always want to honor
and like,
let's say their name into the universe so people hear it.
Yeah. Her name was Emma.
Or is Emma. Yeah, yeah.
(07:19):
She would be a senior this year at East High School.
Got it.
So it's going to be bittersweet for those graduations
where I'm going to be present
and her not being there, but giving her friends their diplomas.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
The you know, this was a there's
a similar situation
where somebody lost a child and they said very similarly.
(07:43):
Like the grief is hard essentially, no matter what.
And then at some point you have a choice.
And I'm curious for you.
What was that journey like?
Obviously world shattering
devastation to I want to take action.
Yeah. It was really to protect.
(08:06):
Yeah, it was really hard.
And luckily our at that time,
our foster daughter,
she was still our foster daughter at the time or.
Kaylee.
Our little daughter, she was a couple months old.
And she, like, I literally
my my world was falling apart,
(08:26):
and I had to take care of somebody.
Yeah. So I had to be there for her.
Yeah.
And, you know, social media could be really negative
and really hurtful
and
I saw those messages
saying, you know, Emma should have walked
the safest way home.
(08:48):
She should have walked the crosswalk.
Even from, you know, DOT,
we had a city
council, meeting, a neighborhood meeting after the accident.
And DOT says, well, you know, she should have walked the
safest route home,
which the safest way
was 14th and University where you have that high traffic.
(09:10):
You have three schools leaving at the same time.
That's not the safest way. Yeah.
And so a friend of mine, helped organize a walk for Emma,
and that was probably like a month or so after Emma's passing.
And we invited city council members.
DOT, anybody to come and walk in her shoes
(09:31):
and see how it wasn't safe.
You know,
I
love that.
I love that you're like, okay,
this is this the game you're going to play?
Like, let's play this game. And now now let's see.
Because intellectually also just,
a I'm struck
a little bit by, by the like absolute insensitivity.
(09:55):
Yeah.
And it's like, you want you don't want to be
you don't want to be a victim.
And I felt like,
I was going to turn into a victim hearing all this stuff.
And I was like, no, I'm not going to let somebody do that to me.
Like, I'm going to step up and this is not me. I'm not a public.
I'm really humble.
I work, I go home, and that’s it.
(10:16):
Yeah.
And, this new year, or the year
after the accident, it's like, okay, well, I guess I’m
a new person, like,
when I was nominated, when I got the email
saying I was a finalist of the award.
I was in the airport. I was in,
I think I was in LaGuardia,
and I was sitting there with my daughter
(10:37):
and the email came up and I'm like, why did they nominate me?
And she's like, do you not know what you've been doing?
And I’m like, No, I’m just a mom.
I mean, you I mean, it's it's, it's part of why
we want to make sure that we give voice to each of you
because you aren’t just. Right.
(10:59):
I mean, you you are an amazing, an incredible woman
and an amazing, incredible mom who is making an effort.
But what I love about the like, humility is
you're not doing it for like, your own gain.
It's just like, no, this needs to change.
And I'm going to fight.
And we didn't have somebody fight.
And so like, that's going to be my role.
(11:20):
So Anna, who you know, you've been nominated
as an inspiring woman of Iowa who inspires you.
When I got that question, it
was kind of hard to figure out, or pinpoint who.
There's so many. Have.
So many. Yeah. In this? Yeah.
Who comes? Yeah.
(11:40):
There's so many people that come about and
right now it's
these young girls,
you know, our elementary school kids, our high school
girls that are fighting for
their voice.
(12:00):
My daughter's, like, inspire me.
Right now, honestly,
I'm in love with the president of Mexico.
Yeah.
She is like a rock star.
And so,
I think the people that we've been voiceless for so many years,
(12:20):
and we've now came about and using our voices,
you know, those are the people that inspire me every day.
Yeah, I love that.
Which leads really beautifully into the last question
I want to ask you,
which is we know people will be listening
and hearing your story at the event.
We know they'll be seeing it on social media.
We know that they'll be hearing it in this conversation.
(12:41):
What is one message and not like the one,
but what is a message
you want to leave people with who are listening?
The one
message is for the young girls.
The girls that are in Girl Scouts.
Don't.
In Spanish,
(13:01):
I have to say the word in Spanish
because I don't know really what it is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't, no te des por vencido.
Like don't
you don't speak up for your,
speak up for yourself, you know, defend what you want.
If you have an idea.
If you are having a hardship, use your voice.
(13:23):
Make sure people are listening.
I love that, and we need those voices
that have been silenced for so long.
On a for people who might be interested
in the work you're doing,
who want to connect with you,
what's the best way for people to connect with you?
I am on social media, I am starting a podcast.
I'm not a professional.
(13:45):
So it’s in the works.
You let us know how we can help you.
Yeah, it's in the works and I it that's something
that I want to do.
For 2025.
And it's called Not Your Normal Latina Mom.
I frickin love it.
And my sister in law might be somebody
(14:06):
who you like, connect with.
Yes.
I am on Tik Tok.
Not your normal Latina mom.
And then on Facebook,
they could reach out to me on my school board
Facebook page, which is Anna, I think
it's just Anna Campos DMPS school board.
(14:28):
Okay. No. That's awesome.
Thank you so much for doing the work.
You and I, there's so much power.
Like the I mean, obviously, it was like a phoenix rising hearing
you talk like I didn't used to step into my voice.
And then having this,
like having your world burn down basically.
And I'm emerging from that with clarity and strength is,
(14:51):
Yeah.
It's, Yeah, it's like a phoenix rising.
So thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you.
The 2025 Inspiring Women of Iowa event will be held
on May 9th at the Meadows Events and Conference Center.
To purchase tickets
and get more information about supporting this event, please
(15:14):
visit Inspiring Women of Iowa dot com and all proceeds
from this fundraising event stay 100% local
to benefit Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa and their mission
to build up girls of courage, confidence
and character who will make this world a better place.
Thank you for listening and thank you for your support.
Welcome to the Inspiring Women of Iowa podcast,
a special series
amplifying the stories of the Inspiring Women of Iowa Finalists.
Inspiring Women of Iowa is an annual event hosted by Girl
Scouts of Greater
Iowa with the goal of celebrating women of courage,
confidence and character who are making the world
(00:27):
a better place.
Why does that sound familiar?
Well, because it also happens
to be the mission of the Girl Scouts,
where they believe society is better because strong
women show girls that anything is possible.
This event was created by Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa in 2017
to celebrate women in our community
(00:48):
and share their stories, while raising support
for the Girl Scout programs
that build the next generation of inspiring women.
16 individuals are celebrated annually with the Courage,
Confidence, Character and Inspiring Advocate for Women Awards.
I'm your host, Sarah Noll Wilson.
I am a business owner, a champion of women, and I'm
(01:10):
also a proud Girl Scout alum.
So massive love to troop 238.
And I am honored to have the chance to speak with these amazing,
inspiring women and to share their stories with you.
Joining me today is
Anna Campos, who is nominated for the Courage Award.
(01:33):
She is the compliance coordinator
at Envoy American Airlines
and a board member of the Des Moines School Board.
Thanks for joining me, Anna.
Thank you for having me.
Okay, so, Anna, before we get into the work you do
and the impact you want to make, just
what else should we know about you as a human?
I am a mom of six.
(01:54):
Yes.
So four biological.
And then during Covid, after my youngest of the four
was in middle school,
we decided to take a journey and become foster parents.
So we saw a need
in Des Moines, with Latino
(02:15):
or non-American, foster children.
And so we decided we were going to do that.
That was right before Covid.
And then, we were planning on not babies.
We didn't want babies.
We wanted middle school or middle or elementary school age kids.
Covid happened.
I was working full time, so it's kind of hard to get those,
(02:38):
middle age, you know, the elementary school
foster kids,
because you would have to take time off
of work, things like that.
So we decided to do, like, littles
and then so out
of that we, adopted our son Luka, at three years old.
And then he had, baby sister,
(02:59):
and we got her at four days old.
Wow.
So now they are eight and three,
and those kids are just amazing.
I think they're they fit perfectly in our family.
I love that so much that already,
as people are listening
or watching this, you can already start to see, like,
(03:21):
Anna's heart and what's behind the work she does.
So.
So one of the things that we're asking
all of the people who are our finalist is,
you know, the fact that we all make an impact and,
and talk to us
about the impact
that you hope to make and what drives that for you.
So a
few years, It's been three years.
(03:43):
We had a tragic event happen in our family.
My 14 year old daughter was,
walking home from school,
and she was hit, on University
Avenue and 17th Street, just blocks away from our house.
And that was a week before her 15th birthday,
(04:08):
and it was a hit and one, hit and run situation.
And as a mom, you could do two things.
You can be down and depressed and go,
like, a really negative way.
Or you could do a positive way.
One thing that I saw, and I even saw it
before, because she wasn't the first one
(04:30):
injured on that street or in that area.
On University.
But she was the first one that lost her life.
And just growing up in that area,
I knew that was a dangerous spot.
And social media,
(04:50):
kind of helped me look into a different perspective of how
that road is not safe.
And I needed to do something because I didn't want another
mom to have to deal with what I dealt with.
That pain is just unbearable.
So I took it on to myself
(05:12):
and help with some family and friends to fight with the city.
And, I hate fight.
I don't like the word fight.
Yeah.
Advocate? Inform, educate.
Advocate. Yeah.
And work with the city on making these these streets safer.
For Des Moines.
(05:32):
And Carl Voss is one of the city council members.
Linda Westergaard is from the east side.
And she's helped me out too, but Carl Voss got me talking
to, people in DC.
It was, Vision Zero that he wanted to bring in
Des Moines to make the streets walkable.
And with all that work, we've gotten
(05:56):
that part of university down to a three way lane.
We've gotten the speed zones extended in the school.
The school zones.
And hawk lights
are going up around our schools to make our students safer.
And that's one thing because of that.
(06:16):
That's one thing that I found that I had my voice,
that I didn't. I never thought I was just a mom.
And I have always taught my daughters to defend themselves,
to defend others, and never be a victim.
And so now I had to show it, you know,
I had to practice where I preached. Right.
And so that that’s
(06:39):
why I ran for school board.
Yeah.
And, you know, safety is my life.
I am a compliance coordinator for a major U.S.
airline here in Des Moines.
And my job is to make sure
my staff is safe and our passengers are safe.
Yeah.
That is. That's incredible.
(06:59):
Can you do me a favor?
I mean, there's a lot that I'm like, oh,
What what what is your daughter's name?
Because as we've been talking
with people who have lost, I'm like,
I always want to honor
and like,
let's say their name into the universe so people hear it.
Yeah. Her name was Emma.
Or is Emma. Yeah, yeah.
(07:19):
She would be a senior this year at East High School.
Got it.
So it's going to be bittersweet for those graduations
where I'm going to be present
and her not being there, but giving her friends their diplomas.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
The you know, this was a there's
a similar situation
where somebody lost a child and they said very similarly.
(07:43):
Like the grief is hard essentially, no matter what.
And then at some point you have a choice.
And I'm curious for you.
What was that journey like?
Obviously world shattering
devastation to I want to take action.
Yeah. It was really to protect.
(08:06):
Yeah, it was really hard.
And luckily our at that time,
our foster daughter,
she was still our foster daughter at the time or.
Kaylee.
Our little daughter, she was a couple months old.
And she, like, I literally
my my world was falling apart,
(08:26):
and I had to take care of somebody.
Yeah. So I had to be there for her.
Yeah.
And, you know, social media could be really negative
and really hurtful
and
I saw those messages
saying, you know, Emma should have walked
the safest way home.
(08:48):
She should have walked the crosswalk.
Even from, you know, DOT,
we had a city
council, meeting, a neighborhood meeting after the accident.
And DOT says, well, you know, she should have walked the
safest route home,
which the safest way
was 14th and University where you have that high traffic.
(09:10):
You have three schools leaving at the same time.
That's not the safest way. Yeah.
And so a friend of mine, helped organize a walk for Emma,
and that was probably like a month or so after Emma's passing.
And we invited city council members.
DOT, anybody to come and walk in her shoes
(09:31):
and see how it wasn't safe.
You know,
I
love that.
I love that you're like, okay,
this is this the game you're going to play?
Like, let's play this game. And now now let's see.
Because intellectually also just,
a I'm struck
a little bit by, by the like absolute insensitivity.
(09:55):
Yeah.
And it's like, you want you don't want to be
you don't want to be a victim.
And I felt like,
I was going to turn into a victim hearing all this stuff.
And I was like, no, I'm not going to let somebody do that to me.
Like, I'm going to step up and this is not me. I'm not a public.
I'm really humble.
I work, I go home, and that’s it.
(10:16):
Yeah.
And, this new year, or the year
after the accident, it's like, okay, well, I guess I’m
a new person, like,
when I was nominated, when I got the email
saying I was a finalist of the award.
I was in the airport. I was in,
I think I was in LaGuardia,
and I was sitting there with my daughter
(10:37):
and the email came up and I'm like, why did they nominate me?
And she's like, do you not know what you've been doing?
And I’m like, No, I’m just a mom.
I mean, you I mean, it's it's, it's part of why
we want to make sure that we give voice to each of you
because you aren’t just. Right.
(10:59):
I mean, you you are an amazing, an incredible woman
and an amazing, incredible mom who is making an effort.
But what I love about the like, humility is
you're not doing it for like, your own gain.
It's just like, no, this needs to change.
And I'm going to fight.
And we didn't have somebody fight.
And so like, that's going to be my role.
(11:20):
So Anna, who you know, you've been nominated
as an inspiring woman of Iowa who inspires you.
When I got that question, it
was kind of hard to figure out, or pinpoint who.
There's so many. Have.
So many. Yeah. In this? Yeah.
Who comes? Yeah.
(11:40):
There's so many people that come about and
right now it's
these young girls,
you know, our elementary school kids, our high school
girls that are fighting for
their voice.
(12:00):
My daughter's, like, inspire me.
Right now, honestly,
I'm in love with the president of Mexico.
Yeah.
She is like a rock star.
And so,
I think the people that we've been voiceless for so many years,
(12:20):
and we've now came about and using our voices,
you know, those are the people that inspire me every day.
Yeah, I love that.
Which leads really beautifully into the last question
I want to ask you,
which is we know people will be listening
and hearing your story at the event.
We know they'll be seeing it on social media.
We know that they'll be hearing it in this conversation.
(12:41):
What is one message and not like the one,
but what is a message
you want to leave people with who are listening?
The one
message is for the young girls.
The girls that are in Girl Scouts.
Don't.
In Spanish,
(13:01):
I have to say the word in Spanish
because I don't know really what it is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't, no te des por vencido.
Like don't
you don't speak up for your,
speak up for yourself, you know, defend what you want.
If you have an idea.
If you are having a hardship, use your voice.
(13:23):
Make sure people are listening.
I love that, and we need those voices
that have been silenced for so long.
On a for people who might be interested
in the work you're doing,
who want to connect with you,
what's the best way for people to connect with you?
I am on social media, I am starting a podcast.
I'm not a professional.
(13:45):
So it’s in the works.
You let us know how we can help you.
Yeah, it's in the works and I it that's something
that I want to do.
For 2025.
And it's called Not Your Normal Latina Mom.
I frickin love it.
And my sister in law might be somebody
(14:06):
who you like, connect with.
Yes.
I am on Tik Tok.
Not your normal Latina mom.
And then on Facebook,
they could reach out to me on my school board
Facebook page, which is Anna, I think
it's just Anna Campos DMPS school board.
(14:28):
Okay. No. That's awesome.
Thank you so much for doing the work.
You and I, there's so much power.
Like the I mean, obviously, it was like a phoenix rising hearing
you talk like I didn't used to step into my voice.
And then having this,
like having your world burn down basically.
And I'm emerging from that with clarity and strength is,
(14:51):
Yeah.
It's, Yeah, it's like a phoenix rising.
So thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you.
The 2025 Inspiring Women of Iowa event will be held
on May 9th at the Meadows Events and Conference Center.
To purchase tickets
and get more information about supporting this event, please
(15:14):
visit Inspiring Women of Iowa dot com and all proceeds
from this fundraising event stay 100% local
to benefit Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa and their mission
to build up girls of courage, confidence
and character who will make this world a better place.
Thank you for listening and thank you for your support.
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