First Latina Kansas commissioner sees DEI opportunities

Key Takeaways

Though she ran for the Board of Commissioners to help ensure a better life for her daughter, Sarah Lopez sees her role in Sedgwick County, Kan. as a chance to open opportunities to a larger community.

“I have a different outlook than some of my colleagues around the state and so diversity, equity and inclusion is incredibly important to me,” she said. “I have kids that are part of the LGBT community and they were discriminated against in school, and so that’s kind of really what made me want to help resolve some of these things, update some non-discrimination policies with schools.”

When Lopez ran for the board of county commissioners, she angled her campaign with the message of ensuring that her southern district got its fair share of services and resources. But as her campaign went on, she saw a powerful symbolic opportunity as the first Latina county commissioner in Kansas history. While people of Hispanic descent make up roughly 20 percent of Sedgwick County’s population and she is one of five commissioners, she does not represent the district where the majority of Hispanics live.

Lopez sees great potential for an influx of talent if the county can make itself a more attractive employer with a greater emphasis on internal equity.

“I want to make sure that we’re doing a better job of being more inclusive as everybody is having all kinds of workforce shortage issues around the country,” she said. “We’re no different and I really think that this is a way that we can start getting into more communities that might not ever think about working in local government.”

Aside from the symbolic and leadership position she holds, Lopez also looks forward to a systematic look at how Sedgwick County policies could change its hiring practices and nondiscrimination policies.

“It’s been a long time coming and I don’t think anybody has intentionally put any policies in place, but if you haven’t lived experiences, then it’s hard to really understand them,” she said.

Lopez would also like to see herself recruiting more people who look like her to run for county office.

“I think anytime being the first of anything, there’s a lot of pressures that come from both sides of that,” she said. “The Hispanic community locally is really looking at me to kind of set an example.

“Going to our Kansas Association of Counties meeting, the other commissioners look pretty much the same, so walking into that room, I don’t always feel as if I fit in there, but I definitely think it’s important to show up and to be seen and for people to realize that, you know, our community is the Hispanic community in Kansas is growing and we need to have more representation.”

The road to the county commission was the more challenging part for Lopez, who faced some race-based opposition during her campaign.

“I don’t know if it was intimidating necessarily, but there were some mailers and things that were sent around that were veiled race-baiting and really trying to point to the color of my skin or my last name or whatever the case may be,” she said. “And so that was pretty disappointing, but I wasn’t necessarily intimidated by it. In my professional career, I’ve pretty much been the only woman or person of color in most of the rooms anyways, so it wasn’t something that I wasn’t used to already.”

Lopez has joined NACo’s DEI Advisory Group, a group of county DEI professional staffers and elected officials interested in discussing diversity, equity and inclusion.

“I’m really excited to be a part of it, selfishly,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to learn a whole lot from the people that are part of that group and just want to see what I can bring back to Sedgwick County, because I don’t have a lot of DEI familiarity besides my lived experience. So being able to learn from people who have really studied this is going to be helpful.

“It’s something that all organizations at this point should be making an effort toward,” she noted. “I’m excited to bring my experience as a young Hispanic woman in a predominantly White area in the middle of our country. I do think that I’ll have a different perspective than maybe others from the coasts because they are quite a few years ahead of where we are today with this work.”