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As Executive Director of Seed Coalition, a group of colleges and universities focused on community and civic engagement, Rob Barron ’02 has two pieces of advice that he gives to the college students he encounters. 

Go Learn Something

First, he says “don’t worry about the next decision you’re going to make”. His perspective is “there isn’t a wrong decision out there.” Decisions between jobs or locations or graduate programs are just “a thing that you’re going to do and you’re going to learn something no matter which choice you make.”

Barron, a Des Moines native, recounts his determination to do something different in college. “When I was looking at colleges, the one thing I knew was that I was not going to any school in the state of Iowa.” Then he got to the fall of his senior year of high school, “and I got a phone call from Tim Hollibaugh inviting me to come visit 91����. I was an exceptionally unimpressive baseball player and I was like, ‘Whoa, ok, I’ll go look at 91����.’” Over the next few months, and a few more visits, he became convinced that 91���� was the place for him. “My parents pledged to treat me as though I was on the East Coast, and that’s what my experience was like. I got to be my own individual and I got to see more of the world even though I was just an hour away.”

Challenge Your Beliefs

The second piece of advice that he gives students is, “put yourself in places where you can challenge your beliefs. There’s a lot of joy in learning that people aren’t what they look like or what they appear to be in a two-second clip. You’ll develop and become a different person. Look for those opportunities to surprise yourself, that’s where growth comes from and that’s also when we start finding the things that we care about. That’s how we get better at achieving those things because we’re able to find common ground with people that we otherwise wouldn’t have. We have to practice that.”

Barron practices what he preaches, recounting his recent campaign for the Des Moines City Council seat for Ward 1. “I believe that we have a deficit of trust. And that's not a Des Moines thing, or an Iowa thing, it’s an everywhere thing. And I loved knocking doors in my campaign. I knocked on about 4,000 doors in that campaign.” Persistent engagement is Barron’s prescription for building trust. “I knocked on every likely voter’s door, which meant I was talking to Republicans, Independents, and Democrats, it didn't matter. I would have these conversations with people who have vastly different political beliefs from mine, and we would always find areas of agreement. And honestly, we just ended up liking each other.”

Being the First

Running for Des Moines City Council (twice, he lost the first time) built on Barron’s previous career in politics and advocacy, which he began in former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin’s office, working his way up from staff assistant to state staff director. He went on to advocate for climate change solutions, and to work as special assistant to the president of Grand View University for government and community relations while also co-founding the Latino Political Network. 

In late 2025, when he became the first Latino elected to City Council, he felt the responsibility of being first, noting that it’s a privilege to represent his community. “Since the election, the number of Latinas and Latinos that have come up to me and just told me that the election meant a lot to them really surprised me. That is a reminder that I need to be exceptional at this so that there's space for others from my community to come after me. Because the second or the third may not get the headline, but they're going to be the ones that make a deep impact.” 

Showing Up to Build Trust

Barron says that trust is built by showing up, noting, “My obligation is to continue to be the guy that's going to talk to everybody and understand that how I do this job is going to have an impact on whether people believe that they have a government that cares about them or not. When they reach out to me, they have got to hear back. It’s important to me to show up.” When knocking on doors in Des Moines, he encountered people whose views differ from his, “Yet we’d still agree on issues like childcare or the purpose of government.” 

In his work at Seed Coalition, “We're trying to move beyond a world where partisan identification colors everything, including interpersonal relationships and where we work. There are so many more things that matter.” 

He adds, “What’s hard, even though it gives me joy, is the opportunity to try and build better systems towards a higher purpose. We should always be working on how we work together and asking big questions about who an institution serves and serves well and who it does not. That’s how we get better at the things that we're committed to doing. I couldn't be more challenged doing this right now and trying to think about a lot of these big questions, but also, I am grateful for the opportunity to be in this space right now.”