“Working to save children is as close to God’s work as I’ll ever get,”says Diana Dooley of the California Children’s Hospital Association

This month, Influentials magazine is pleased to highlight the extra-ordinary professional career of one of the Central Valley’s most respected and influential women. Diana Stone Dooley, a Hanford High School and Fresno State graduate, was once named “the most powerful woman” in Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial term. At 28, she became Brown’s Legislative Secretary—a role in which she served as the governor’s top lobbyist to the state Legislature. In 1979, this position required a top-notch communicator who could work the practically all-male law-making body in promoting the governor’s political agenda. As the first woman and non-attorney in this high profile position, Diana recognized that this “first” was an important step for women in politics.

“This is not just a boy’s system, but an old boys’ system,” she commented at the time.

Although Diana had worked as a chief lobbyist before the appointment as the governor’s Legislative Secretary, she felt that her gender and age might have been seen by legislators as a weakness. With that knowledge, she deliberately set out to befriend each legislator by learning each of their particular special interests and showing her receptiveness to their particular problems. With that objective in mind, Diana earned the respect of California’s elected officials. She gained a reputation as someone who was readily available to listen and was definitely thorough. Eventually, California’s legislature knew they were dealing with someone who had the Governor’s ear.

Even with gender hurdles to overcome, Diana Dooley successfully managed to read, research and advocate in excess of 6,000 proposed bills over a two-year period—no easy task. The knowledge and skill in reviewing the intricate implications to legislative pieces takes a great amount of time, energy and knowledge. She spent much of her time working with interested departments, agencies and private persons, in understanding and arguing the bills, which often were not in line with the governor’s priorities.

What she believed then would be a short- term assignment, turned out to be a seven-year-plus stint.

Diana achieved this very important position by actively participating in a variety of civil service positions. Her marriage to Dan Dooley (also of Hanford and in his own right a very successful attorney and powerful member of the Brown administration), earned the Dooley couple the title of “the dynamic Dooley duo.” In 1979, this Central Valley couple was the youngest, highest paid and highest ranking couple in state government. Both she and Dan recognized the extreme pressures politics could play on a young family. The constant internal desire to succeed in the job of convincing others to “see it your way”—or in Diana’s case, the Governor’s way—created an extraordinary layer of personal maturity to them both.

Diana’s professional success was not interrupted by the election of a new governor. She and her husband eventually returned to the Central Valley where Dan, his brother Cal and his parents Dick and Do formed Dooley Farms Inc. (Cal is our very own past United States Congressman.) Diana served for a year as Visalia’s Assistant Fire Chief and then eventually acknowledged that her professional strengths lie in her communication skills. So began her career in the advertising field in 1985. Not much later, in 1992, she found herself attending law school, which certainly seemed the most natural progression. Today, Diana has taken her very unique skills in a different direction, as an advocate for children’s health. <Read More>