My name is Sherry Roe. I’m excited to announce in 2024 that I will be running for County Commissioner District 3 as a Democrat candidate.

I was born and raised here in Howard County. We lost my mother, a Delco employee to breast cancer when I was 8. I was raised by my father who would spend 30 years in the Delco plant, raising his five kids. I attended Kokomo Center Schools and graduated from Haworth in 1984. I married Jim, my high school sweetheart, the following summer. We have been married 38 years and have raised our five children here in Howard County as well.

At age 22, I began working at South Side Lumber Co. as Corporate Bookkeeper in the heart of downtown. I also served on the Corporation’s Board of Directors. Over the next 20 years, I would hold that title and then assist with the closing of the business and books in 2008.

I was then accepted into the nursing program at Ivy Tech. I would end up withdrawing to care for my father who had contracted a rare leukemia from exposure to benzene at Delco. I graduated from Ivy Tech in 2011 with an Associate’s degree in General Studies and went on to study health and environmental science at IUK.

I worked a short time at Community Howard as a tech while in school. I’ve spent the last 10 years working the clinical side of Hospice as a Certified Hospice Palliative Nursing Assistant at Guardian Angel Hospice. I’ve served on the board for Guardian Angel Hospice’s Community Foundation and volunteered yearly at the Vietnam Veterans Reunion.

Since the death of my father in 2009, I’ve also became an environmental activist and voice for the many retirees from Delco who have fought or succumbed to cancers and diseases caused by years of unsafe exposure to chemicals in the local plants. That work led me to publish my book, “Profits Over People.” It tells the story of my parents and gives a voice to the workers by also telling their stories of unsafe exposure to chemicals and illegal dumping.

I’ve also spent the last decade researching and uncovering contamination in our town that has been covered up. My decade of research has caught the attention and respect of environmental attorneys from across the U.S. and led me to assisting them as an environmental investigator. I volunteer with environmental justice and citizens action coalition groups across Indiana, canvassing door to door in communities riddled with cancer and contamination because of corporate greed and cover up.

Most recently, an environmental anthropologist, Dr. Jennifer Johnson, added my research and book to the curriculum at Michigan State University for her classes to study. This will open the door to a long path of making our community a safe place to live through testing and grants.

As your Democratic candidate for Howard County Commissioner, District 3, I have no political experience in my resume, but that may well prove to be my biggest asset. I’ve earned the respect of my colleagues and peers as being a person who shows up and advocates for the people, and who speaks loudly about issues that affect the health and sustainability of people and their communities.

Howard County has many important issues besides environmental. I’m qualified to be your candidate because I am one of you. I’m running for County Commissioner for you and I, the people of this community, to hold accountability and transparency, offer a new keen eye for opportunities and creative solutions for all issues at hand that will make Kokomo a safer and better place live, work, and raise a family.

Most importantly, I’m running for County Commissioner District 3, so you and I have a voice. Please support me in November at the polls.