Age 35  | Owner, Gold Dome Strategies Inc. 

She always planned on a law career, but one course correction became necessary. “I started out as a patent lawyer, but I was too social,” Jill Altringer said. “So I ended up getting involved in government relations.”

She founded her own company, Gold Dome Strategies Inc., at the age of 27. “I had a very supportive husband and in-laws and parents and my brother,” Altringer said. “With my husband’s backing, we were willing to give it two years to see if it was working.”

The move paid off, because the business has rolled on for eight years. Altringer specializes in agricultural issues, serving as a liaison with the government for her clients and acting as a resource for legislators.

Altringer studied biology and chemistry at the University of Iowa; during that time, she taught an upper-level biology class and worked as a research assistant at James Cook University in Australia. She went on to law school at Iowa and conducted research for a book by two professors on patent law.

After internships at Integrated DNA Technologies Inc. in Coralville and with an attorney in London, England, she joined Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts P.C. in Des Moines as a patent attorney. She started Gold Dome Strategies in 2003.

Since 2005, she also has served as a member of the Grimes City Council. Her causes in Grimes include the Christmas Giving Tree and an annual drive to buy and distribute warm pajamas for underprivileged children.

That pajama drive “is indicative of the way she lives her life,” wrote Grimes City Administrator Kelley Brown in a nomination letter. “She doesn’t take anything for granted. She finds out where there are gaps … and then she does what it takes to fill that gap.”

Altringer and her husband, Kirk Bond, have three children: Garrett, 6; Josephine, 3; and Gable, 9 months. She lists her family as her top hobby. “After that, it’s the City Council,” she said. “I’m enjoying that.” She’s a 12-time participant in RAGBRAI, the annual bicycle ride across the state, and this year she and her family are going to Walt Disney World.