• Father John J. Herrera
• Mother Olivia Herrera
• Pioneering at Southwestern Bell
• Education
• Tompkins County Legislature
• Public Speaking and Awards
• Personal

Growing up in a family where politics was the main topic of discussion, Kathy Luz Herrera has always viewed personal life through a political lens. Her formative years were steeped in politics. Her father, John J. Herrera, was a man who embodied the phrase of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. John earned his law degree from South Texas Law School in 1940 while working as a laborer and taxi driver.

In 1939, he revived the dormant Council # 60 of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Houston, which promoted what was then a radical notion -- that Mexican-American citizens should exercise their right to vote. John J. Herrera twice ran unsuccessfully for the Texas State Legislature, using the results of his campaigns to show Lyndon Baines Johnson and other Texas politicians that Latinos could wield power at the voting booth and had earned a place at the table.

By 1954, when Kathy was two years old, John J. Herrera worked with Gus Garcia and LULAC to win two landmark civil rights cases for Hispanics. The 1948 case outlawed the segregation of Hispanics in schools (Delgado vs. Bastrop Independent School District). The second case, Pete Hernandez vs. Texas, made illegal the practice of systematically excluding Hispanics from juries. This was the first civil rights case dealing with Hispanics argued before the United States Supreme Court. Kathy's father demonstrated that although social change requires a lifetime of dedication, the hard-won victories that take place along the way provide tremendous personal satisfaction. This knowledge has motivated Kathy in every arena of her life.

Kathy's mother, Olivia Herrera, was the youngest of 13 children. Like most girls of her culture and class, she quit school in the 5th grade to help out her migrant worker family that worked in the fields harvesting vegetables and picking cotton. She was blessed with remarkable curiosity and intelligence, and could read and write both Spanish and English. She was equally fluent in both languages, and enjoyed collecting colloquialisms, tracing Spanish and English expressions to their Latin roots.

Olivia was a devout Catholic, skilled seamstress, and ardent reader of the classics, biographies, mystery novels and science fiction. She could hold her own in conversation with anyone from college professors and medical doctors to South American domestic workers and dockworkers. Olivia had six children, John Michael, Anthony, Douglas MacArthur, Joyce Mary, Kathy Luz, and Felice Anne. Anthony died of a childhood disease, and as a devout Catholic, Olivia adopted St. Anthony as one of her patron Saints.

A favorite family story about Olivia details her shopping habits. Olivia would shop at several grocery stores, with a list that quoted to the penny the sale price of the items she would buy. She reasoned that if she could buy just the cheapest sale items in each store, she would save money, and could tell you how much she was saving the family, again, to the penny. It has been noted that Olivia would linger in the produce section, reminding neighbors about the lettuce boycott, and advising them against purchasing grapes while Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers were on strike. Saving money was only part of Olivia's motivation; she was an activist in her own right, at the grassroots level.

A native Texan, Kathy worked in her twenties for Southwestern Bell and joined the Communication Workers of America (CWA). It was at Southwestern Bell that she became a trailblazer in her own right, as one of the first female telephone installers in Houston in 1973, when women were still not welcome in a "mans job". Kathy excelled at the technical, physical and the customer service aspects of her work, winning the respect and support of her co-workers.

Retaining this affinity for non-traditional work, Kathy was hired as an apprentice electrician by Cornell University in 1989, joining the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union #241. Throughout her career at Cornell, Kathy has consciously mentored and supported other workers. She was appointed to the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women in 1990, and from it learned about the history of women at Cornell University.

Kathy took night school classes at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3), maintained a 3.5 average, and was inducted into Alpha Gamma Nu, the TC3 Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the International Honor Society of Two Year Colleges. It is a measure of the respect Kathy has earned that her co-workers elected her Shop Representative, and also served for a time as the Cornell Building Trades Head Representative to the Tompkins County Building Trades Council.

When time permitted, Kathy took extramural classes at Cornell University. With encouragement from her supervisor and her professors, Kathy applied for and was accepted into the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1996. She continues to work full-time as an electrician as she pursues her bachelor's degree, maintaining a 3.6 GPA, and earning entrance into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

In 2001, Kathy was elected to the Tompkins County Board of Representatives, representing the 5th District. (Fall Creek in the City of Ithaca, portions of Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights). During her tenure, she has acquired a reputation as being fair, direct and plainspoken. Mindful of the harmful effect of divisive rhetoric, she seeks to work toward solutions that bring individuals and communities together. Kathy is committed to retaining the quality of life in Tompkins County. She is an avid supporter of livable wages, literacy, and sustainable economic development that makes living and shopping in Tompkins County more affordable.

In 2005, Kathy sought a second four-year term on the County Legislature, and ran unopposed. She was re-elected with a 48% voter turnout from 5th Ward's 1st District, and over 29% voter turnout from the Town of Ithaca's 9th District.

In 2006, Kathy serves as Chair of the Government Operations (GO) Committee. In addition to policy issues and decisions, a focus for 2006 is updating the process for appointments to advisory boards. Having served for two years as Chair of the Planning, Development, and Environmental Quality (formerly Economic and Workforce Development) Committee, this year Kathy is Vice Chair of PDEQ.

Kathy's focus for economic development includes supporting workforce housing in the downtown core, high-quality jobs for local residents, support for entrepreneurs, and training for the unemployed and underemployed. This includes a commitment to sustainable tourism programs that bring in visitors while maintaining our quality of life and providing good-paying jobs. Kathy is very pleased to have been appointed this year to the Workforce Investment Board.

In 2006, Kathy was also reappointed to the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) as well as the Local Advisory Board of Assessment Review. Keenly interested in improving our public transportation, she was reappointed this year as one of Tompkins County's representatives on the Board of Directors of Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT).

As State and Federal funding for local programs continue to shrink, and State-imposed funding mandates increase the burden on the property tax, Kathy seeks to alleviate the impact on residents and maintain needed services. As an advocate for the poor and underemployed, Herrera also supports programs that allow motivated people to acquire skills and better their economic status.

In 2003, Kathy was selected for a fellowship to Harvard University for the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program, for which she was funded in part by the Victory Fund. This program is an intensive series of classes posing real-world problems utilizing the Harvard case-study method. Kathy benefited from the fellowship and utilizes the collaborative problem-solving and leadership skills she learned there in her political life.

In April of 2005, Kathy was deeply honored to be given the prestigious Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Recognition Award presented by the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (.pdf file) and Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development at Cornell University. This award is given for "efforts on behalf of women at Cornell and beyond." Recognized for her consistent and passionate advocacy for working class women, women of color, and for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuals and Transgender individuals through her 16 years at Cornell, this award places Kathy with an elite group of 69 individuals from all levels of Cornell University who have been so honored since the award's inception in 1993.

Kathy is as comfortable in a boardroom as she is on the shop floor. She often speaks to classes and community groups, and was the keynote speaker for the 2002 and 2004 Transitions Conference at TC3, sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), assisting women returning to school. In addition, Kathy was a presenter at the Cornell College of Industrial and Labor Relations' Alice Cook Conference in 2003. Currently a junior at Cornell, Kathy believes that returning to school is one of the best decisions she has ever made.

Kathy has lived in the Ithaca's 5th Ward since 1988. She and Jill, her partner of more than 20 years, have owned a house in Fall Creek since 1992. Herrera enjoys walking in the neighborhood, camping, snorkeling and scuba diving.