Meet the new executive director of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors office

IOWA CITY — What drew Guillermo Morales to the executive director role with the Johnson County Board of Supervisors office was the people.

He expressed his excitement on getting a chance to work with the supervisors, other elected officials, county staff and others involved in serving Johnson County residents.

“This is a really phenomenal team,” Morales said. “Brilliant individuals doing incredible work to serve the community.”

Morales, originally from El Paso, Texas, has lived in Iowa for about three years. He lives in Iowa City with his wife and two children. Morales, 47, spoke with The Gazette about his career experience, time in Iowa and what he is looking forward to the most in his new role.

The executive director provides administrative guidance to the Board of Supervisors, as well as ensures effective operation of the board office and its staff. The executive director oversees the office’s daily operations, projects, policies, budgets and strategic initiatives on behalf of the Board of Supervisors.

The supervisors appointed Morales as the board’s next executive director in early March and he began the role later that month. His annual starting salary is $103,545.26.

The board’s former executive director, Mike Hensch, retired, the county said in a news release. Hensch worked for the county since 2002 and served as executive director for the last six years.

“Guillermo Morales brings an impressive skill set to this position,” Supervisor Lisa Green-Douglass said in a statement. “He has experience working with boards, strategic planning, policy development, labor relations, collective bargaining, and staff management. We are excited to have him in this role with Johnson County.”

“We are thankful for Mike Hensch's service to the County and wish him well in his retirement,” Green-Douglass added.

Career experience

Morales graduated in 2007 from the University of Texas at El Paso with a degree in political science and a minor in history. He earned a law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law in 2010.

While in law school, Morales said he knew he didn’t want to practice law after graduation.

“A lot of the people that I knew and loved growing up, they couldn't afford attorneys,” Morales said. “I decided kind of early on that I wanted to use that education to advocate for people in a different way, a way that would not require them to pay a whole lot of money to get the help that they were seeking.”

Out of law school, Morales worked for the Upper Rio Grande Workforce Development Board as a regulatory administrator for two years before moving to San Jose, Calif., where his wife is from.

There, Morales worked for the California School Employees Association for nearly seven years under various roles, including executive manager, interim director of communications and labor relations representative.

Most recently, Morales served a labor educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Iowa College of Law. Joining the UI Labor Center in 2019 gave Morales the opportunity to meet people and get a sense of Johnson County.

Morales is a member of League of United Latin American Citizens, called LULAC, and serves on Coralville’s community policing advisory board as LULAC’s representative. He is also the treasurer of the United Association for Labor Education.

New role is ‘aligned with the kind of work I want to do’

Morales has been in his new role for nearly a month now.

While he said he still has lots to learn, he feels comfortable in the position given that it is similar to his past experience. The new role is also aligned with the policy work he was hoping to get into.

“When I heard about the opportunity to join the team here, I thought that I should take the opportunity,” Morales said. “I thought that it fit well with my experience in California, and it was very much aligned with the kind of work that I want to do.”

Morales highlighted three things he is most looking forward to. One of those is participating in the board’s upcoming strategic planning sessions.

“I think it's critical that organizations and governmental entities have a unified vision for what they see for their future,” Morales said. “It's a great opportunity to make sure that everybody's on the same page and everybody's able to contribute to that vision so that there's buy-in and collaboration.”

Morales is also looking forward to the county’s administrative campus renovation, which he said will improve the county’s service to residents and will make the facilities more welcoming and accessible.

The third thing Morales brought up he is looking forward to is helping develop and implement the various programs funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, as well as “seeing the good that does within the community.”

“I'm really thankful for the opportunity to serve in this capacity given that I haven't been here (in Iowa) long,” Morales said.

“I recognize that I have a lot to learn about the different projects that are going on, but I feel like the team here — whether it's the supervisors themselves, the other electeds, the department heads and the board office staff — is just an incredible group of people doing incredible work, and I'm just so excited to be a part of it.”

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