City of Derby

Kathleen B. Sexton Personal Profile

Kathy Sexton has been City Manager of Derby, Kansas (population 21,101) since March 2006. The City of Derby has a $25 million annual budget and 158 full-time employees. It is a full-service city providing water, sewer, police, fire, and other municipal services in the Metropolitan Wichita area of south-central Kansas. Derby is the 18th largest city in the state.

Ms. Sexton was Assistant County Manager of Sedgwick County Government from 2001 to February 2006. As such, she led and managed an urban/rural county organization with $345 million budget and 2,700 FTE positions. She began her career with Sedgwick County in 1995, serving in several management positions prior to becoming Assistant County Manager.

Ms. Sexton earned the Master of Public Administration in 1992 and a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1989 from Wichita State University. She is an active member of the Kansas Association of City/County Management and the International City/County Management Association.

From 1992 to 1995, when Kathy worked in the Governor’s budget office in Topeka, she founded the Capital-Area Chapter of the Wichita State University Alumni Association to provide alumni living in the Topeka and Lawrence area with an opportunity to connect with each other and support the Shockers. She later served on the Board of Directors and as President of the WSU Alumni Association.

Kathy is active in service to the community through the Rotary Club of Derby, Junior League of Wichita, Visioneering Wichita’s Health Care Alliance, and the Derby Community Foundation. In 2004, she was named one of the top 20 Women in Business by the Wichita Business Journal.

Kathy is a lifelong Kansan, having been raised on a farm in Southeast Kansas near the City of Walnut and having attended Girard High School. She is married to Eric Sexton. They reside in Derby.

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