Sarah DeMerchant
Office
Running for State Representative, Texas, District 26 (2018)
Biography
Native Texan, Sarah raised by her parents, Robert and Dorothy Williams of Sugar Land, who have been together for 50 beautiful years. Her parents moved from Louisiana to Texas in search of good jobs and strong public schools. Sarah is a product of FBISD, graduating from Willowridge High School. Her first introduction to technology happened in early elementary school years while spending summers with family in Louisiana and Burnet County using a Commodore 64. She went on to take programming courses in Middle School. She captained her high school basketball team and played Division 1 basketball at UTSA. She graduated from University of Houston-Victoria with a MBA and was the Graduate Senator of Business on the Student Body Government. For undergrad, she graduated from University of Houston-Downtown with a BBA in Computer Information Systems.
She became the youngest Consulting Manager at the 3rd largest software development company in the world at the time. She was the CTO of MazelTov.com. At present, she is a Securities Officer at one of the top 10 largest software development companies in the world, responsible for business and technical operations.
Early in her career a VP brought to her attention she had a wage gap. After that she became an equal pay for equal work and working families advocate partnering with the Obama Administration and the Shriver Report. In addition, she has given several interviews with USA Today, Essence Magazine and VICE News addressing the wage gap. Sarah speaks at colleges and conferences on overcoming the wage gap and minorities getting their career on the fast track.
Her software, Aequitas, designed to end the wage gap was featured on the White House website for 2 years after winning the Grand Prize and Women Innovation Mobile award from the U. S. Department of Labor Equal Pay app competition, competing against teams from Carnegie Mellon and MIT.
Sarah is a member of AAUW-Fort Bend and is the Organizing for Action-Fort Bend (OFA) chapter lead. She has volunteered for Women In Public Policy (WIPP), First Colony Little League, Lexington Creek Elementary School, and Junior Achievement, as well as, the Wendy Davis and Barack Obama campaigns. Working with Filipino American Caucus for Empowerment (FACE), Sarah helped lobby for the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Medal Act signed by President Obama in 2016.
Sarah lives in New Territory with her husband, Ken, (graduate of Texas A&M and a software engineer), and two children Mikey and Kacy both attending FBISD. They are members of Lakewood Church. Sarah loves basketball, afternoon tea, and watching Black-ish, Modern Family and Game of Thrones.
Source: Democrat DeMerchant
Priorities
Saving Public Education
Advancing Innovation - Education is an investment for the future for our children and our country. We lead the world in innovation due to investing in education. While public school funding is continually removed by the State, additional legislation for schools to spend money keeps happening. This forces higher taxes in the local community. In addition, we need to ensure college is attainable and affordable for working families.
Expanding Opportunities
Providing Opportunities - While the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, women still have a long way to go to achieve it. A woman's pay is a strategic part of the family budget. In many cases, it is the primary income. We must ensure women have equal pay for equal work, access to leadership opportunities and control over their healthcare options. When we are putting the best employee in leadership, companies are competitive nationally and internationally.
Affordable Healthcare
Improving Quality of Life - Far too long Texans have paid for ACA but have not been able to reap the benefits. It's time to make a change and reap those benefits. "Medicaid provides health coverage to more than 4.6 million low-income seniors, nearly all of whom are also enrolled in Medicare." -Medicaid.gov
Source: Democrat DeMerchant
Sarah DeMerchant
...
Office
Running for State Representative, Texas, District 26 (2018)
Biography
Native Texan, Sarah raised by her parents, Robert and Dorothy Williams of Sugar Land, who have been together for 50 beautiful years. Her parents moved from Louisiana to Texas in search of good jobs and strong public schools. Sarah is a product of FBISD, graduating from Willowridge High School. Her first introduction to technology happened in early elementary school years while spending summers with family in Louisiana and Burnet County using a Commodore 64. She went on to take programming courses in Middle School. She captained her high school basketball team and played Division 1 basketball at UTSA. She graduated from University of Houston-Victoria with a MBA and was the Graduate Senator of Business on the Student Body Government. For undergrad, she graduated from University of Houston-Downtown with a BBA in Computer Information Systems.
She became the youngest Consulting Manager at the 3rd largest software development company in the world at the time. She was the CTO of MazelTov.com. At present, she is a Securities Officer at one of the top 10 largest software development companies in the world, responsible for business and technical operations.
Early in her career a VP brought to her attention she had a wage gap. After that she became an equal pay for equal work and working families advocate partnering with the Obama Administration and the Shriver Report. In addition, she has given several interviews with USA Today, Essence Magazine and VICE News addressing the wage gap. Sarah speaks at colleges and conferences on overcoming the wage gap and minorities getting their career on the fast track.
Her software, Aequitas, designed to end the wage gap was featured on the White House website for 2 years after winning the Grand Prize and Women Innovation Mobile award from the U. S. Department of Labor Equal Pay app competition, competing against teams from Carnegie Mellon and MIT.
Sarah is a member of AAUW-Fort Bend and is the Organizing for Action-Fort Bend (OFA) chapter lead. She has volunteered for Women In Public Policy (WIPP), First Colony Little League, Lexington Creek Elementary School, and Junior Achievement, as well as, the Wendy Davis and Barack Obama campaigns. Working with Filipino American Caucus for Empowerment (FACE), Sarah helped lobby for the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Medal Act signed by President Obama in 2016.
Sarah lives in New Territory with her husband, Ken, (graduate of Texas A&M and a software engineer), and two children Mikey and Kacy both attending FBISD. They are members of Lakewood Church. Sarah loves basketball, afternoon tea, and watching Black-ish, Modern Family and Game of Thrones.
Source: Democrat DeMerchant
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Priorities
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Social