WE “Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong.
It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” —G.D. Anderson
Women Empowered a new feature
Empowered Women of Florida
To Protect & Serve
“I didn’t think of it as just me being female, but
as me more just wanting to do a good job and
prove myself and grow within the organization.”
By Jen Wead
D
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sition of Chief Dep
has been in the pos
Deputy Sheriff of Hillsborough County. She
position for just over a year, earned after a
long, esteemed 28 year career in Hillsborough County Law
Enforcement. We were able to sit down with her earlier this
month to talk about her many years working her way up
When the Chief Deputy was still just Donna, she had aspired
to be a Marine Biologist. Being from New Jersey, she
knew that if she was going to be diving a lot, she wanted
to move to a warmer climate, so she applied to University
of Tampa. There she studied Marine Biology, and since she
had always had an interest in Criminology and Law Enforcement,
she took classes in those subjects, as well. As she moved
through school, she did an internship at the Tampa Police Department,
the city agency for Hillsborough County and fell in
Back then, in the early nineties, there weren’t many
women in law enforcement, and most certainly not at the Senior
Leadership levels. She said that she encountered a few
women at Supervisor levels, which
proved to be great role models to
her, but there weren’t many. We
asked Chief Deputy Lusczynski
if the absence of women is partly
what drove her to want to earn her
place in Senior Leadership.
“I didn’t think of it as just me
being female, but as me more just
wanting to do a good job and prove
myself and grow within the organization.
As a leader, I saw...just
like in all of our professions, we see
people we want to emulate (gestures
to the left with her hands)
and people you don’t want to be
Above, Chief Deputy Sheriff Donna Lusczynski stands with
Grant, PR Coordinator.
with (gestures to the right) and I wanted to try and be like
those people (back to the left) and do what’s best for this organization
and the citizens in our county.”
She told us that she was lucky to not have experienced
discrimination for being a woman on the force. In her many
years, she received great mentorship from her past male superiors.
“I’ve worked at just about every area of this organization,
with the exception of Pension, so I’ve gone places where
people haven’t. I was fortunate my mentors and my former
chief put me in those positions to give me a well roundedness
for the organization. Those were men and I certainly appreciate
that.”
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dominantly male work environment she said, “I don’t know
if I was just in the right spots at the right times, but I did not
have any issues. I’m sure people talked, but I can tell you that
the guys that I’ve worked with on my squads, they didn’t
care. As long as you went to a call, you handled it, you handled
yourself, and you didn’t dump work on them... as I grew
through the ranks I think that changed. As I was in some positions
I know there were males that would challenge my authority
because, whether I’m a female or not, they would do
Donna Lusczynski
Chief Deputy Sheriff of
Hillsborough County
10 • AUGUST 2019 813.682.9364 FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE