Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast. In this podcast, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders from our nation and from your backyard who are working to improve health.
In episode 27, we interview Audé Negrete, executive director at the Kansas Latino Community Network (KLCN). The organization works to improve health equity by empowering Latinos through nonpartisan civic engagement, leadership development and coalition building.
She shares how she became interested in social justice, which began at a young age over a kitchen table with her grandmother. Her grandmother, a chemical engineer by trade, would have Audé read the newspaper while she cooked breakfast for her. Then they would discuss the stories she had read, which humanized the news for her.
“I realized very quickly that everyday people are making a positive difference, and I wanted to be one of those people,” she said. “Regardless of what my career ended up being, I wanted to be one of those players I was reading about, because not all of them were doing it as a career, but they were all having an influence.”
Audé said her grandmother volunteered in the community and worked to create positive change.
“She was really one of the catalysts that inspired me to do more — especially as a woman,” she said.
Audé also shares about her involvement to help get the Maryland Dream Act, an experience that made her fall in love with nonpartisan community organizing. Before that act passed, high school students who were undocumented were unable to attend college.
As part of her community organizing efforts before the bill was passed, she was traveling to high schools and speaking with students impacted by the previous law. She met many students who were smart and motivated but couldn’t pursue their education because of their citizenship status. She worked with those students to write and share their stories with their elected officials so they could better understand the immigrant experience.
“It was really wonderful to not only see the bright futures change the law that would impact them the next year but also to see our elected officials have a better understanding of how policies were impacting their constituents without them knowing,” Audé said.
She discusses other aspects of her career before co-founding the Kansas Latino Community Network in 2023. After working in community organizing for many years throughout the state, she decided to take action and help launch an organization that could help fill gaps and address challenges within the Kansas Latino community.
They’ve since grown to three full-time employees, in addition to seasonal and contract workers throughout the year.
She shares more about her organization’s efforts, including voter engagement efforts. She said communities that are civically engaged and have leadership opportunities have better health outcomes. She highlighted an example of how communities with less civic engagement have fewer crosswalks, which impacts health, as crosswalks are needed to ensure people can exercise and remain safe.
She said one of the biggest barriers the Latino community faces is being involved in civic engagement spaces.
“Oftentimes when I talk about civic engagement in politics, people think about these national debates that are really angry and controversial,” Audé said. “When in reality, civic engagement is helping our neighbors. It’s being a community. It’s local.”
She also discusses:
- Her experience leading the Kansas Hispanic and Latino Affairs Committee, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and how their efforts led to higher rates of Latinos getting vaccinated
- Challenges in the Latino community
- The importance of civic engagement and how that leads to healthier communities
- KLCN’s focus on connecting with Latinos across the state and communicating in both Spanish and English
- Her passion for leadership development and nonpartisan voter engagement
- How Latinos in Kansas register at higher rates to vote than other groups; however, they vote at lower rates, because they aren’t fully informed on how to cast their vote; she shares about KLCN’s non-partisan efforts to communicate to the Latino community about how to cast their vote, such as where to find their polling location
- Success stories of mobilizers, including a high school student who helped get 79% of his low-propensity contacts to the polls last year
- Her vision for KLCN and how their vision is tied to health equity
And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Audé has been an innovative leader in Kansas.
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