Chandler’s New Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office

CHANDLER, Ariz. - As the management assistant for Chandler’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office, CC Cantabrana describes herself as an intermediary between the office’s other three staff members.

In this way, she mirrors the office itself, which acts as a liaison between community leaders and the city government, with the goal of promoting diversity in the city of Chandler. The office does this through community events, charity drives, and other initiatives within city government.

One such event the DEI Office held last Wednesday was a networking breakfast in collaboration with Compass Christian Church, with over a hundred guests in attendance.

Other events put on by the office include Operation Back to School, a charity drive to provide students with school supplies; and the Miss Juneteenth pageant, a beauty pageant meant to celebrate and uplift young black women.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office started as a division of the city’s Neighborhood Resources office in 2002. In 2021, the office became a division of the City Manager’s Office, which brought more resources and staff, but also new challenges to the office.

Cantabrana got her start in city government as a volunteer for the DEI Office before it was put under the control of the City Manager. She would go on to volunteer for other parts of city government including housing and code enforcement, before coming full circle to join the staff of the DEI Office under the City Manager.

When asked why she was drawn to work for the Chandler City Manager’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office, CC Cantabrana said “diversity is community.” Cantabrana said “DEI as it’s known today is so new, and so the fact that our current city leadership also sees the importance of it moving forward, culturally and socially, it’s really cool that they see that.”

Aside from events, the division was also involved with developing the city’s new non-discrimination ordinance, banning discrimination on basis of age, race, sex, and sexual orientation, among other factors.

Eduarda Schroder, co-founder of Chandler Pride, worked with the DEI Office to develop this new law, which was passed by the City Council in December 2022.

Schroder reached out to Niki Tapia, the head of the DEI Office, in 2020 to ask about the possibility of the city drafting a non-discrimination ordinance. Schroder said, “Working with the DEI office was easy. Niki and her team have always been accessible.”

Since then, Schroder has also worked with the office to plan Chandler’s first LGBTQ pride event and is currently working with the office to help Chandler better support its LGBTQ population, as measured by the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipality Index Score.

Niki Tapia has worked with the city of Chandler to promote diversity in varying roles since 1998 and has seen a shift in her responsibilities as well as the goals of the DEI Office since the office was put under the control of the City Manager.

According to Tapia, one of the biggest challenges in developing the division is finding what “definitions of success” look like for the city of Chandler, and how they may differ from other communities in Metro Phoenix.

Tapia noted that the city of Chandler has a minority population of 46%, making the city one of the most diverse in the Valley.

In this early stage, she is working on finding goals the office can measure, and how to measure the goals the office cannot gather direct data from.

“The challenge is finding out what those definitions of success are, and how to quantify them.” Tapia said, “You can’t measure a sense of belonging.”

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