Mikael Gibson’s varied nonprofit career over a quarter-century in the Quad Cities has led to her latest ideal post, as new executive director for Dress for Success Quad Cities.
That 15-year-old nonprofit invites the public to attend an open house on Thursday, April 16 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at its building, 423 E. 32nd Street, Davenport.
It offers a unique opportunity for guests to learn more about the organization’s mission to empower women to achieve economic independence. Attendees will have the chance to meet staff, explore programs and services, and tour the facility.
“We are excited to open our doors to the community and share more about the work we do,” said Gibson, who became executive director in December 2025. “This is a great opportunity for individuals to connect with our mission and see firsthand how they can support and get involved.”
“I'm brand new here. I'm not new to the community, but I'm new to the organization. So it's a way to kind of invite people back in to re-establish relationships with people and also get people in the building,” she said Monday morning, April 13th. “Part of how any service in the area grows is that they get people inside the building to understand the depth of what the services that they provide are.”
An affiliate of the worldwide Dress for Success, which offers clothing and accessories, and career support free of charge, one of the misconceptions the QC group faces is that it only provides professional attire, Gibson said.
“That's what a lot of people connect us with, is providing suitings, which is an important door to services for us,” she said. “Certainly, we believe that if women who don't have the resources have access to clothes that make them feel confident, it certainly helps them to move forward professionally.
"Either if they're trying to move up where they're at or they're trying to go find a new job, that if you feel good and beautiful in what you're in, that helps you to be successful in either that interview process or in moving up in an organization that you're already in," Gibson said.
“But we actually provide broader services than just that,” she said of career coaching, networking, and access to online resources to help build resumes and find jobs. “We can help with mock interviews. Sometimes people are even earlier in the process than that. They just need somebody that they can talk to, that can talk them through, what would I be good at?”
The only service they charge for are monthly pop-up sales, the next one Saturday, April 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., where women can fill a bag of more casual clothes from a specific room, for $40 per bag.
“It really is kind of geared towards working women and helping them to build their wardrobe in an affordable way,” Gibson said. “Oftentimes, people get a week’s worth of clothes.”
“We do help with both interview clothes as well as employment clothes. But it really helps us, when we do have a little bit of overstock, we can use the inventory that we have to continue to support the services that we provide,” she said of those sales.
At Thursday’s open house, visitors are encouraged to:
- Meet the Dress for Success Quad Cities team
- Learn about programs that support individuals on their career journeys
- Tour the organization’s facility
- Discover volunteer and giving opportunities
- Ask questions and learn how to get involved
Gibson is the only full-time employee, with a part-time accountant, and she’s planning to add a new staff person to oversee volunteers and outreach.
“Because we are so volunteer driven and because we are so slim in staff, having somebody really who can focus on being the point person and the support for those volunteers as well as helping to recruit them, and that kind of thing is very important for us,” she said. “We’re hopeful with the outreach portion of that. They can help us continue to build relationships with referral partners, help with tabling events. Some of those things that will allow me to kind of focus on more of the operations and fundraising.”
Dress for Success has between 15 and 20 volunteers who help them provide services, and Gibson also always seeks new
volunteers.
“It has always been very much the volunteers that have been the strengths of the organization,” she said. “We have people that work as personal stylists, we have people that work as career coaches and we have people that help with those educational presentations, people that help us with fundraising. We wouldn't be able to run if it weren't for our volunteers.”
“And we try to work really hard to make sure we're plugging people into what resources are out in the community too,” Gibson said. “We work really closely with American Jobs Center and Iowa Workforce to make sure that our clients know the support services that are available through them. And we do a really good job of referring back and forth. We also work with a lot of referral partners that are different social services in the community. Because a lot of times that's how people get to know about our services is that other social services know about us.”
While there are no income requirements for women to access Dress for Success, clients typically are referred by another social service organization. Usually, they have an interview scheduled or have just moved into a new position.
“Because a lot of times when you're trying to pivot professionally, that's part of what you need is somebody who externally can talk you through that process,” Gibson said. “What are the skill sets that you're bringing? What do you really like to do, what's available here in the area, all of those kinds of things. And so our career coaches provide a lot of that kind of support. And then we also have a group that we're actually kind of reimagining right now that's called the Working Women's Network. And that is basically an education program that helps women who have been through our services to kind of work, to gain a lot of soft skills that help you to be competitive in the workforce.”
That monthly meeting (often with featured speakers) will be the third Tuesday at 6 p.m., with the next one scheduled for April 21.
From West Virginia to the QC
Gibson came to Dress for Success after working two years at CASI.(Center for Active Seniors, Inc.) in Davenport, running their social service programs, and unfortunately, they had some issues with funding, and those programs had to be closed, she said.
“I found myself kind of looking for a new position. But this has been an exciting transition, and I've told a lot of people, I feel like all the positions I've had leading up to this kind of fell well into this position,” Gibson said. “I can take a little bit from this job that's helpful and a little bit from that job that's helpful. So that's been really nice to find myself in a position where I get to use skills from a lot of the different areas that I have worked in throughout my professional life.”
“One of the things that's helpful is that I've been working in social services, in the community for about 25 years, and so I know a lot about what the resources are in the community, have a lot of existing relationships with other social services in community, which makes it easier to open the door to have those kinds of conversations,” she said.
Gibson worked about 10 years for Family Resources (1998-2008), first as an advocate, then running the domestic violence shelter.
A native of West Virginia, Gibson grew up in poverty, and her mom was a social worker and nurse. She and her husband moved to the QC for his job at Rock Island Arsenal and they have four kids.
“My parents very much raised me as, we're responsible for each other as community,” she recalled. “I grew up in poverty, but we also had a great support system of people around us that kind of connected us to the things that we needed. And so I think that I was raised with that being something that was very important, is that you take care of each other as a community, and that's how we're successful as a community, is that we come together and take care of each other, and that nobody is successful in life without somebody handing them resources, whether it's a social service or whether it's a friend or a pastor or those kinds of things.
“And that we're better for it if we help each other as a community,” Gibson said. “I think that's what brought me to being interested in social work. You know, that's what brought me to my degree. And it's also what has driven me to the different programs. And my mother has always kind of been a role model of mine…Understanding the importance of supporting women and has always been kind of a part of my upbringing as well.”
Throughout her career, she has successfully secured and managed more than $7.5 million in federal, state, and local grant funding, supporting critical programs in education, domestic violence services, literacy, and senior advocacy. She has led complex, multi-site operations, overseen diverse teams, and managed comprehensive budgets while ensuring alignment with organizational goals and community needs.
Gibson’s leadership spans a wide range of roles, including Director of Senior Services at Center for Active Seniors, Adult Admissions Coordinator and Literacy Program Coordinator at Black Hawk College, and leadership positions with Family Resources and Friendly House. Her work has consistently focused on expanding access to services, strengthening families, and empowering underserved populations.
A dedicated community advocate, she also has held numerous leadership roles with organizations such as the Bi-State Literacy Council, the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. She is also a recognized public speaker and event planner, having led large-scale trainings, giving campaigns, and public relations initiatives.
Gibson holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Drake University and a Bachelor of Social Work from Concord University. She is a certified domestic violence professional and trained leadership facilitator, with extensive experience in supervision, crisis intervention, and organizational development.
“I worked for several years at Black Hawk College too, so I certainly understand the importance of continuing your education,” she said Monday, “I have a lot of relationships with the colleges that I've tried to bring into this role as well. We just recently hosted a group of students from Augustana here, and those are like first-generation students who are looking to gain the skills that it takes to get through college, move into the workforce and that kind of thing.
"And so we did a workshop for them on what professional attire looks like. And then we helped them. They each got to choose professional attire so that they could come out of school having something to wear.”
Serving variety of clients
Gibson said Dress for Success has a variety of clients, with many women who are single moms and/or at or below the poverty line.
“We're helping people move into the workforce or to move up in the workforce to help women move kind of from jobs to careers,” she said. “From something that is just barely paying the bills to something where they can sustain themselves. And oftentimes because so many people are functioning at capacity, when you're making transitions like a job transition or those kind of things, you can on the outside look like you have a lot of resources and still not have the resources to be able to get that nice suit that you want to or to be able to do a set of professional clothes as you move into a new job or those kinds of things.”
“The lion's share of who we serve is people who are just working on reentering the workforce or starting the process or have just kind of reentered a new position,” she added.
Dress for Success also provides options beyond business attire, for more business casual clothes. They always encourage donations, including jewelry, shoes, purses, makeup, and other accessories. Hours for clothing donations are Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
And they’re often looking for things on either extremes of the sizes, from very large to very small size clothes, and non-slip shoes, Gibson said.
Their main annual fundraiser is “Recycle the Runway,” which will be Nov. 7, 2026 at CASI.
“That’s a fundraiser where we have designers that work with us and they get a bag of some of the clothes that aren't used for out on the floor and that kind of thing here. And they use up to 60, 65% of it. I think they're supposed to use up to 65% of what's in the bag to create a runway look,” she said. “And that's a really fun signature event.”
Dress for Success QC will mark its 15th anniversary this fall. For more information, click HERE, or call 563-322-1010.
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