Instructor Highlight: Dawn Martinez

Dawn Martinez

Dawn Martinez is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. She has a gentle demeanor that puts students, staff, and instructors at ease. Dawn joined the customer service team at Arizona School of Real Estate & Business in 2018 after living in Kansas for 30 years with her family.

“We were tired of being cold and came here for the warm weather!”

It was a big move to start new, but Dawn has never looked back! She is now the Site Manager for the Glendale Campus, sharing, “I have always loved the management side of things.” 

While it was a shift from her previous work in cosmetology, both as a licensed cosmetologist and manager, Dawn said there’s one major connection between her work today and her previous roles.

“I love being able to help people improve. In my previous role as a cosmetologist, the person was coming in to better themselves with a new color or cut, and it made me feel good to help them. Here at ASREB, people are coming in to take these courses to help themselves or their families. It’s nice to be able to encourage them. I just love being able to help, that’s my thing.”

And Dawn has been able to help many people through her role at ASREB, especially because she’s willing to wear different hats to do so. One minute she’s supporting her staff in their daily routine, and the next minute she’s putting on her IT hat to help instructors with PowerPoints for class. She’s also extremely focused on student success.

“If I’m noticing that students are out of class for too long, I will step in and let them know they need to attend if they want to pass and achieve their goals. I want to see them succeed!”

Dawn loves being a member of the ASREB team and enjoys working with the people around her.

“When I interviewed here it just clicked. Just to be able to have a camaraderie with your work family, it’s a really great thing. We’re a tight-knit group.”

In addition to working full-time and taking care of family at home, Dawn has been working on getting her real estate license. She finished all of her courses and will be taking her test soon! Her reasons for doing so are two-fold:

“A big reason I am getting my license is to understand what the students are going through. Working full-time, taking care of things at home, and taking courses for your real estate license is difficult, but not impossible. So students coming in who say they can’t, I tell them they can! Anybody can do it, it’s just a matter of putting your mind to it.

But I also wanted to be able to help my family with our real estate transactions. Being able to understand the paperwork and do that for our family is definitely a benefit for us and I’m looking forward to it.

So it’s both – to help my students and to help my family.”

In her free time, Dawn and her husband spend time together with their veterans motorcycle club and participate in charity events. And when they’re home, they enjoy exploring the world of virtual poker and other fun experiences with their new VR goggles. 

Dawn shared one last thing at the closing of her interview that she wanted students to know:

“You can always ask, and there is no such thing as a stupid question. I am here for you!”