April 8, 2025 • 14 mins
Dr. Dana R. Levitt is the Owner and President of Village Green, LLC. She is a finalist for the Confidence Award.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-levitt-155156214
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(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 this week is Doctor
Dana Levitt, who is the owner and president of Village Green.
(01:33):
She has been nominated for the Confidence Award.
Thanks for coming and talking to me, Dana.
Thanks, Sarah.
Appreciate your time.
Yeah. Well, no, I appreciate yours.
Okay, so
before we get into the work you do
and the impact you make, what?
What else do you want people to know about you
as a human?
(01:54):
Probably that
this podcast is one of the most embarrassing things
I've ever done.
As so it's so counter intuitive for confidence, right?
Sure.
Or maybe.
It's just, I, I, I, I love making an impact on the world
and, and I don't do it for the credit to myself.
(02:16):
Yeah.
So, so I think that's that's a big one.
That's what makes this awkward. Is, like. Right.
Putting you in the spotlight.
Well, so.
So my invitation is, I hear
you and I and
and that also speaks to probably why you were nominated.
Because you're doing what you do
for the betterment of others,
(02:37):
not necessarily for the spotlight on you.
And this is a great opportunity
that others can listen to your story and maybe be inspired
as well, to step into their power like you have.
So that's my loving invitation for you to to to step
in, to sharing
and sharing your experience, to perhaps inspire others.
Okay.
So so Dana, talk to us about
(03:01):
either the work you do, and kind of connected to that,
I always love to dig into what's the desired impact
you hope to make,
because we know that each of us,
every moment we show up, we're in conversation.
We are making an impact.
Whether we are realize it or not.
So talk to us about the work you do and the desired impact
(03:22):
you hope to make on this world.
So I think, I do a lot.
I, I own a lot of corporations and, you know, that's,
that's the, the business piece of it.
But I think it's really similar.
I also do a lot of volunteering and
(03:42):
in both capacities my, the
the desire is the same, is to leave the world a better place.
Is I want to leave the world
a better place than than it was before me.
And, so with the work
that I do professionally for business, I,
(04:05):
I do a lot of real estate.
I own a lot of real estate corporations.
And, you know, when I was younger
and creating these corporations, you have to
you have to be in it for the money
because you have to be able to grow
and you need to make a living and all these things.
(04:27):
And at a certain point, I realized,
that there was such a disparity
in, in and, and housing, it,
that people needed housing
that they could afford and,
(04:50):
and was not just completely disgusting.
So we we, what I do is I provide housing
for people that couldn't afford,
you know, these these regular
type of rents that have priced people out of the market.
And I provide them with
(05:12):
as nice of places to live.
So people,
the, the people that I rent to, you know, there's this gap
they make,
what they say is too much to get any rental assistance.
But they don't make enough to pay
what market rent is for just a standard apartment.
So I build I, no, I don't build the apartments,
(05:34):
but I find apartments that I can fix and make gorgeous
for people to live in and rent and be safe.
And and I'm all about security.
And then they they can live
and not have to worry about people have so much food insecurity.
(05:57):
Housing insecurity.
So what I do is I try to provide,
you know, affordable housing for people
that live in this, this huge gap of,
of housing kind of crisis.
So that's what I do today.
(06:18):
That's I
mean, that's that's incredible and does feel counter
to typically what you see with folks who are in real estate
because it is about so often, not always,
so often it is about how can we make the most amount of money?
You know. It is, it is.
You see it all my colleagues that I would say,
(06:41):
I can say all my colleagues that I know of
are in real estate purely for the bottom line.
But you get to a point where
the bottom line, you
look, you have to look past that humanity
and see that we have a housing crisis.
(07:01):
The crisis is that we don't have affordable
housing for people that are work really hard.
They work really hard,
and they still can't afford a nice place to live.
So yeah, I'm I'm, you know, renting
people nice places to live that they can afford.
You don't want somebody,
(07:21):
you know, you, people use the term house
or mortgage poor or house poor.
Yeah.
You know the, the place
next door to me charges twice as much as I charge.
And my, my place is is equivalent,
if not better than what they provide.
(07:42):
So.
Okay, so I think I'm providing a service.
Yeah. No, I mean, you absolutely are.
And it feels it feels like an act of, not rebellion,
but a little bit of, this is a sort of an act of resistance.
And I can appreciate that
in you showing up how you show up,
(08:04):
which is not only making really,
affordable, secure, healthy
living spaces for people, but doing it with so much heart.
I would imagine that can
imagine that pushes against some people.
Right?
Like the example of you know, the the apartment complex
next to you.
I'm sure that I like to me, I'm listening to let's go ahead
(08:26):
and a beautiful act of resistance.
This is to say, you know, we're going to do this
because we're not talking about the bottom line.
We're talking about the human line.
And like, this is the impact we want to make. Right.
I think too many, I think in too many things right now
that are completely irrelevant to this, people
are not looking at the human line.
(08:47):
They're looking at the bottom line.
And what I want to always do is look at the human line.
Where's the humanity in what I do?
Right.
So that's always my goal.
That's always my goal.
I, I like that I just gave me some goosebumps.
And this is part of why I love being in these conversations,
(09:08):
because we live in the same city,
and I love the opportunity
to get to meet these amazing women doing incredible things.
So here's what I'm curious about.
Who is somebody who inspires you?
So you've been nominated.
You received a number,
an overwhelming number of people who feel inspired by you.
Who inspires you?
(09:30):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I,
I have to say, you know, my father.
He is now passed.
And I hope his memory is always for blessing.
And he always was my number
(09:51):
one inspiration, my biggest cheerleader.
You know, if if I stumbled,
you know, get back up and do it better the next time.
You know, just no matter what it was, he.
Even if I messed up, he inspired me.
And so I think I think that's just,
(10:15):
I don't, it can't get better
than what his inspiration was for me.
And unfortunately, other people don't get to meet him now.
But people who knew him, you knew knew that of him.
And, and that's what he ingrained in me, too, is
we leave the world a better place and always give what you can.
(10:38):
Give as much as you can.
Yeah. Can I, can I ask?
I'm a I'm
a big believer
in, people who have passed on,
let's make sure we continue to say their name.
So what was your dad's name?
His name was Thomas Charles.
Love it Thomas Charles love it.
And what an incredible legacy that he left that continues
to live on through you.
And then now you're expanding and building
(11:00):
upon it and, inspiring the next generation as well.
He sounds amazing.
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking.
Yeah.
So, okay, so, Dana, when we know that there will be
people who will be listening to this, obviously
people are going to be exposed to your story.
Who will attend the event.
(11:20):
But our goal with this
mini podcast series is to be able to expose as many people,
to to the messages and the impact that folks are making.
So what would be one message that if people who are listening to
this would leave,
what would be that message you would want them to leave with?
(11:41):
I, I guess the message,
you know, that is just kind of my constant.
I kind of try to slip it in wherever I can.
Is, is to make,
do the best you can to make the world a better place,
(12:01):
leave your mark and have it be better than the one before you.
So that everybody that
that comes next has something better.
You've done something that
that can can give on and on
and on, you know, generationally.
(12:24):
In my faith,
we say, l’dor v’dor, and it's generation to generation.
And so, leave leave something better for the next generation.
Beautiful.
Dana, for people who might be interested in connecting with you
or following your work,
or learning more about all the great things you're doing,
(12:45):
what's the best way for people to connect with you?
That's, that's a good question.
I.
Just so you know, most people, it's like LinkedIn
is usually like,
you can, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn or.
Right. Definitely.
I do have a LinkedIn page and profile,
(13:07):
and you can connect with me there.
And also I want to say, don't be offended
if it takes me a little while to, to reach back to you.
I, I get a lot of, I'm not on social media a lot, actually.
And, and I just, I'm,
(13:27):
I, I have a lot going on, so I don't necessarily
make social media my priority, but, if you want to reach out,
I would love to hear from anybody and everybody.
And you can find me on LinkedIn for sure.
Dana, thank you so much for the work you're doing
and continue to do to close that housing gap,
which obviously has huge impacts for generational wealth
(13:50):
and security for so many.
It is so desperately needed.
And I,
I love leaving this conversation with,
let's not just think about the bottom line.
Let's think about the human line as well.
So thank you so much, Dana.
Absolutely.
The 2025 Inspiring Women of Iowa event will be held
(14:12):
on May 9th at the Meadows Events and Conference Center.
To purchase tickets
and get more information about supporting this event, please
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
(14:34):
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 this week is Doctor
Dana Levitt, who is the owner and president of Village Green.
(01:33):
She has been nominated for the Confidence Award.
Thanks for coming and talking to me, Dana.
Thanks, Sarah.
Appreciate your time.
Yeah. Well, no, I appreciate yours.
Okay, so
before we get into the work you do
and the impact you make, what?
What else do you want people to know about you
as a human?
(01:54):
Probably that
this podcast is one of the most embarrassing things
I've ever done.
As so it's so counter intuitive for confidence, right?
Sure.
Or maybe.
It's just, I, I, I, I love making an impact on the world
and, and I don't do it for the credit to myself.
(02:16):
Yeah.
So, so I think that's that's a big one.
That's what makes this awkward. Is, like. Right.
Putting you in the spotlight.
Well, so.
So my invitation is, I hear
you and I and
and that also speaks to probably why you were nominated.
Because you're doing what you do
for the betterment of others,
(02:37):
not necessarily for the spotlight on you.
And this is a great opportunity
that others can listen to your story and maybe be inspired
as well, to step into their power like you have.
So that's my loving invitation for you to to to step
in, to sharing
and sharing your experience, to perhaps inspire others.
Okay.
So so Dana, talk to us about
(03:01):
either the work you do, and kind of connected to that,
I always love to dig into what's the desired impact
you hope to make,
because we know that each of us,
every moment we show up, we're in conversation.
We are making an impact.
Whether we are realize it or not.
So talk to us about the work you do and the desired impact
(03:22):
you hope to make on this world.
So I think, I do a lot.
I, I own a lot of corporations and, you know, that's,
that's the, the business piece of it.
But I think it's really similar.
I also do a lot of volunteering and
(03:42):
in both capacities my, the
the desire is the same, is to leave the world a better place.
Is I want to leave the world
a better place than than it was before me.
And, so with the work
that I do professionally for business, I,
(04:05):
I do a lot of real estate.
I own a lot of real estate corporations.
And, you know, when I was younger
and creating these corporations, you have to
you have to be in it for the money
because you have to be able to grow
and you need to make a living and all these things.
(04:27):
And at a certain point, I realized,
that there was such a disparity
in, in and, and housing, it,
that people needed housing
that they could afford and,
(04:50):
and was not just completely disgusting.
So we we, what I do is I provide housing
for people that couldn't afford,
you know, these these regular
type of rents that have priced people out of the market.
And I provide them with
(05:12):
as nice of places to live.
So people,
the, the people that I rent to, you know, there's this gap
they make,
what they say is too much to get any rental assistance.
But they don't make enough to pay
what market rent is for just a standard apartment.
So I build I, no, I don't build the apartments,
(05:34):
but I find apartments that I can fix and make gorgeous
for people to live in and rent and be safe.
And and I'm all about security.
And then they they can live
and not have to worry about people have so much food insecurity.
(05:57):
Housing insecurity.
So what I do is I try to provide,
you know, affordable housing for people
that live in this, this huge gap of,
of housing kind of crisis.
So that's what I do today.
(06:18):
That's I
mean, that's that's incredible and does feel counter
to typically what you see with folks who are in real estate
because it is about so often, not always,
so often it is about how can we make the most amount of money?
You know. It is, it is.
You see it all my colleagues that I would say,
(06:41):
I can say all my colleagues that I know of
are in real estate purely for the bottom line.
But you get to a point where
the bottom line, you
look, you have to look past that humanity
and see that we have a housing crisis.
(07:01):
The crisis is that we don't have affordable
housing for people that are work really hard.
They work really hard,
and they still can't afford a nice place to live.
So yeah, I'm I'm, you know, renting
people nice places to live that they can afford.
You don't want somebody,
(07:21):
you know, you, people use the term house
or mortgage poor or house poor.
Yeah.
You know the, the place
next door to me charges twice as much as I charge.
And my, my place is is equivalent,
if not better than what they provide.
(07:42):
So.
Okay, so I think I'm providing a service.
Yeah. No, I mean, you absolutely are.
And it feels it feels like an act of, not rebellion,
but a little bit of, this is a sort of an act of resistance.
And I can appreciate that
in you showing up how you show up,
(08:04):
which is not only making really,
affordable, secure, healthy
living spaces for people, but doing it with so much heart.
I would imagine that can
imagine that pushes against some people.
Right?
Like the example of you know, the the apartment complex
next to you.
I'm sure that I like to me, I'm listening to let's go ahead
(08:26):
and a beautiful act of resistance.
This is to say, you know, we're going to do this
because we're not talking about the bottom line.
We're talking about the human line.
And like, this is the impact we want to make. Right.
I think too many, I think in too many things right now
that are completely irrelevant to this, people
are not looking at the human line.
(08:47):
They're looking at the bottom line.
And what I want to always do is look at the human line.
Where's the humanity in what I do?
Right.
So that's always my goal.
That's always my goal.
I, I like that I just gave me some goosebumps.
And this is part of why I love being in these conversations,
(09:08):
because we live in the same city,
and I love the opportunity
to get to meet these amazing women doing incredible things.
So here's what I'm curious about.
Who is somebody who inspires you?
So you've been nominated.
You received a number,
an overwhelming number of people who feel inspired by you.
Who inspires you?
(09:30):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I,
I have to say, you know, my father.
He is now passed.
And I hope his memory is always for blessing.
And he always was my number
(09:51):
one inspiration, my biggest cheerleader.
You know, if if I stumbled,
you know, get back up and do it better the next time.
You know, just no matter what it was, he.
Even if I messed up, he inspired me.
And so I think I think that's just,
(10:15):
I don't, it can't get better
than what his inspiration was for me.
And unfortunately, other people don't get to meet him now.
But people who knew him, you knew knew that of him.
And, and that's what he ingrained in me, too, is
we leave the world a better place and always give what you can.
(10:38):
Give as much as you can.
Yeah. Can I, can I ask?
I'm a I'm
a big believer
in, people who have passed on,
let's make sure we continue to say their name.
So what was your dad's name?
His name was Thomas Charles.
Love it Thomas Charles love it.
And what an incredible legacy that he left that continues
to live on through you.
And then now you're expanding and building
(11:00):
upon it and, inspiring the next generation as well.
He sounds amazing.
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking.
Yeah.
So, okay, so, Dana, when we know that there will be
people who will be listening to this, obviously
people are going to be exposed to your story.
Who will attend the event.
(11:20):
But our goal with this
mini podcast series is to be able to expose as many people,
to to the messages and the impact that folks are making.
So what would be one message that if people who are listening to
this would leave,
what would be that message you would want them to leave with?
(11:41):
I, I guess the message,
you know, that is just kind of my constant.
I kind of try to slip it in wherever I can.
Is, is to make,
do the best you can to make the world a better place,
(12:01):
leave your mark and have it be better than the one before you.
So that everybody that
that comes next has something better.
You've done something that
that can can give on and on
and on, you know, generationally.
(12:24):
In my faith,
we say, l’dor v’dor, and it's generation to generation.
And so, leave leave something better for the next generation.
Beautiful.
Dana, for people who might be interested in connecting with you
or following your work,
or learning more about all the great things you're doing,
(12:45):
what's the best way for people to connect with you?
That's, that's a good question.
I.
Just so you know, most people, it's like LinkedIn
is usually like,
you can, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn or.
Right. Definitely.
I do have a LinkedIn page and profile,
(13:07):
and you can connect with me there.
And also I want to say, don't be offended
if it takes me a little while to, to reach back to you.
I, I get a lot of, I'm not on social media a lot, actually.
And, and I just, I'm,
(13:27):
I, I have a lot going on, so I don't necessarily
make social media my priority, but, if you want to reach out,
I would love to hear from anybody and everybody.
And you can find me on LinkedIn for sure.
Dana, thank you so much for the work you're doing
and continue to do to close that housing gap,
which obviously has huge impacts for generational wealth
(13:50):
and security for so many.
It is so desperately needed.
And I,
I love leaving this conversation with,
let's not just think about the bottom line.
Let's think about the human line as well.
So thank you so much, Dana.
Absolutely.
The 2025 Inspiring Women of Iowa event will be held
(14:12):
on May 9th at the Meadows Events and Conference Center.
To purchase tickets
and get more information about supporting this event, please
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
(14:34):
and character who will make this world a better place.
Thank you for listening and thank you for your support.
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