FLIPPABLE: L. Sarah DeMerchant for TX-HD26
Native Texan, Laquitta "Sarah"DeMerchant raised by her parents, Robert and Dorothy Williams of Sugar Land, who were together for 51 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. 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 Service Account Manager 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, Fort Bend Precinct 4 County Commissioner Ken DeMerchant, (graduate of Texas A&M and a software engineer), and their children Mike 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.
https://www.democratdemerchant.com
