Alumna is Miss New Mexico

Miss New Mexico USA. Product marketing manager at YouTube TV. Entrepreneurship maven.

Alumna Dominique Ehrl ’16 has many titles — and through her work as Miss New Mexico USA, she’s bringing together all her interests to lead impact. Her platform: to bolster small businesses.

The journey, Ehrl says, has been surreal. It has also been full of detours.  

Growing up, Ehrl was a dancer and an athlete. She says she also felt “a bit like a nerd.” She never thought about beauty pageants — not until she met a former Miss New Mexico at a store in her hometown in Sante Fe.

“We chatted a bit, and she proposed the idea that I should consider competing,” Ehrl recalls. “She debunked a lot of stereotypes I had about pageants at the time. It took someone believing in me, seeing something in me that I didn’t see in myself, to realize that all the elements and things that I enjoy are celebrated in pageantry. I decided to compete.”

At 19, Ehrl won third place in the Miss New Mexico competition hosted by the Miss America Organization. At 28, she earned third place once again in the competition to become Miss New Mexico USA, this time through a different organization, Miss USA.

Earlier this year, Ehrl, a newlywed, realized that age restrictions and marriage status requirements had changed for Miss USA competitions. She was eligible to compete again. She decided to give the crown one more chance.

And, this time, she won.

“When my name was announced as Miss New Mexico USA 2025, I felt so proud of myself,” she says. “It felt almost unbelievable. I went into it with the mindset to win. I put in the hard work and really refined the areas I knew I needed to improve in.”

Preparing for the competition is not easy. The women practice articulating their stories in three minutes; get in top physical shape; rehearse walking patterns while wearing heels and showing their style; and dig deep into their own motivations to present themselves and their personalities quickly and concisely.

So, what’s one of the keys to success?

“You need to figure out how to step into your confidence,” Ehrl says. “A lot of times you might not feel like you have it in you at that moment, but this competition commands it from you. Part of being a woman is understanding how you feel best in your own skin and body.”

Ehrl says the timing of the triumph was perfect. 

“It was God’s plan,” Ehrl says. “I wasn’t ready to win a few years ago. There was more that I needed to learn about myself to take on this role. Today, I have such a better grasp on who I am, and I am able to articulate that and share that with more grace and confidence and just stand in that a little more.”

Igniting small business success

Ehrl’s title is helping her lead impact for a sector close to her heart: small businesses. 

“Technology is transformational for small businesses,” Ehrl says. “I’m very passionate about digital literacy and about empowering business owners to embrace technology and face the fear of learning,” she explains.

Since graduating from FIU in 2016, Ehrl has built an impressive career working at Google and its subsidiary, YouTube. Through her various roles, Ehrl has developed a keen sense of technology’s power to help small businesses grow.  

She began her career at Google working directly with small business owners across the country. She helped these small business owners learn how to maximize Google Ads to connect with their audiences and grow their brands. She also heard their frustrations about not understanding — or having time — to incorporate technology into their marketing strategies.

She also watched her mom, who founded a dance studio, go through the same experiences.

“My mom opened her small business around the same time,” she says. “After a few years, my mom ended up having to close her business. I truly believe that if I had known back then what I know now, maybe there was something I could have done to help keep her dream alive. I feel this call to help other entrepreneurs who are in the same boat. I don’t want them to have to go through the struggles my mom went through.”

Ehrl’s plan? To launch a project that connects small businesses with technological knowledge. “I want to help make a collective, a holistic hub of resources and support, including one-on-one consultation and a workshop series. I think that work begins here in New Mexico. I’ve already started, and it has been so fulfilling.”

“Small businesses have always given me a sense of belonging,” Ehrl says. “The warmth of the coffee shop, the barista that knows my order, the local florist or local nail technician, those connections and encounters have always helped me build community in each city that I’ve lived in. And that’s what connects all of us. Small businesses are the backbone of our country. When small businesses thrive, I really believe communities thrive.”

From FIU to Big Tech

Ehrl says her time at FIU set her up for a string of triumphs.

“I really feel like my professors and mentors at FIU played a big role in my success,” Ehrl says.  “It was the support FIU gave me that helped me to build my own confidence and find my own way.”

When Ehrl arrived at the university, she was on a pre-med track. But she soon discovered that was not the right path. Her professors, mentors and advisors helped her navigate other possible career paths, and they encouraged her to lean into her strengths — communications and marketing. They also helped her explore her talents. 

One of her favorite experiences? Stepping outside her comfort zone and taking a business course as a senior.  

“I was very shy about business at the time,” Ehrl recalls. “The course was Advanced Professional Selling. It sounded super interesting. I figured this could be helpful. It was only for business majors, which I wasn't. I emailed the professor with my own elevator pitch with why I was interested in the class, and she allowed me to take the course.”

It proved eye-opening.

“I just loved getting a taste of the business world that I always craved but, at the time, I hadn’t had the confidence to pursue,” Ehrl says. “I think being in that sales class helped me to confirm that I could be in these spaces. I just needed a bit of that support system that I found through marketing, sales, business and communication courses I took at FIU to help me see that. That was the full circle moment for me.”

She graduated with a bachelor’s in communication arts after completing internships at Univision, The Food Network and NBCUniversal. 

Today, she is a product marketing manager at YouTube TV. She and her team conduct research about consumer needs, uncover gaps in services and use the findings to inform YouTube TV’s marketing strategy.

She'll be putting down her laptop and headphones for a moment as she grabs her evening gown and high heels and prepares for another experience of a lifetime: Ehrl will represent her home state in the Miss USA beauty pageant in Reno next week.