Helping others and making a difference resonates deeply with Chantel Chaney. “I believe in paying it forward,” Chantel says. “My hope is that the people I help will take the opportunity to help another person in need. Whether it be offering a smile or some advice or a bed to sleep in.” As a disability team leader and VA case manager, Chantel pays it forward every day. Chantel has been with Cuddigan Law for nearly year now but she previously worked for Tim Cuddigan for a little more than three years. “I just keep coming back,” she says with a smile.
Passionate about equal rights for everyone, she was part of the big anti-domestic violence movement in Omaha in the late 1990s early 2000s. “I have worked and/or volunteered in every aspect of that field,” Chantel recalls, “from volunteering at a shelter, to training medical and law enforcement personnel, to being on a death review committee. I worked with some of the greatest and most dedicated people I have ever met. It was my calling to be in that place at that time and I hope that what I did made a difference.”
She is also paying it forward in another way by teaching her kids to respect and appreciate differences in others. She is the proud mom of a 14 year-old daughter who is an athlete and a 6 year-old son who aspires to be like his sister and play sports. Her free time is spent with them or at her parents’ house on a lake in northern Iowa
“I’m a small town Iowa girl. I have my Bachelor’s Degree from College of Saint Mary and I am a very proud Alum. Most importantly, I am a diehard–almost obnoxious–Iowa State fan,” she laughs.