Ethnic Awareness Committee Has New Chairman

Meet Tom Lopez, who Tuesday night was sworn in to serve as new chairman of the city's Ethnic Awareness Committee during the Board of Aldermen meeting.

He will replace long-standing Chairwoman Ann Ackerman, who isn't going far. She will still sit on the committee, but says she's looking forward to seeing how Lopez and the new board configuration will extend the committee's mission forward.

Lopez says he's up for the challenge, although he knows there will be a bit of a learning curve.

"It feels great to have the support of the Mayor and the Aldermen. I'm looking forward to serving on the committee. I think its goal of encouraging understanding and appreciation of ethnic diversity, and the facilitation of communication between the ethnic community and its government is something that has made our city great in the past and will continue to do so," says Lopez.

His day job is with the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter, doing education and employment advocacy. He also works with a non-profit arts action group, and has recently returned from a mission trip to Honduras.

But when asked about the work of the ethnic diversity committee, Lopez wisely defers to Ackerman, whose past leadership as a founding member of the legislatively appointed committee has set the ground work, and will be a guidepost moving forward.

"The committee was originally born out of an unhappiness among certain ethnic minority groups in the city and their relationship with city government, going back to mid-'80s," Ackerman says.

She is a four-term city Alderman, serving from 1985-1993. But before and after her stint inside the Aldermanic chamber, Ackerman was a community activist, and that remains her comfort zone. She is currently a professor of education at Rivier University.

A big part of the committee's mission has been bridging communication gaps and making sure all who want a voice at City Hall are heard.

"What we're building toward is co-sponsoring programs that build better awareness and knowledge of the different groups in the city, and when needed, we basically try and make recommendations when there is a problem," Ackerman said. "Its power is in the fact that it brings a lot of people together to dialogue and make recommendations."

She recalls the committee began when two people, one from the Latino community and one from the black community, came forward to say that they didn't feel free to speak up within the confines of city government, and that they were troubled by issues of racial profiling, especially within city schools and by the police department, said Ackerman.

"It's understandable why those two organizations were singled out, because they deal with the broadest spectrum of the population. We focused for many years on those issues and we've come a long way as a city since those days. Many people, both within our schools and within law enforcement, have worked very hard to build communication and do outreach, and it shows," Ackerman said.

One of the goals of the committee moving forward is bringing diverse groups together to talk about issues and find common ground.

"There are a lot of very small ethnic groups around trying to do things, so what we'd like to discuss is maybe united them at the same time, as a committee co-sponsoring some cultural programs that help the community to get to know more about our new citizens, our new neighbors. This is the reason for ethnic awareness – maybe we could come up with a better name for the committee, but when we formed, it wasn't just focused on legal minority groups. When you talk about 'ethnic' you're talking about racial and religious differences, so it's a broad spectrum," Ackerman said. "Our mission is still about building and uniting the community."

In that way, she sees Lopez as a great fit in the leadership role.

"Tom is a people person and he has contact with a wide range of different people through the many things he's involved with. He will make more people aware of the ethnic awareness committee, and that is important. Professionally, he's in a field related to social work and counseling. We're moving forward into a new era for the ethnic awareness committee," Ackerman said.

In recent years the question has been raised by more than a few people as to whether there is still a need for an Ethnic Awareness Committee

"We talked about it and concluded that there was a strong feeling that, yes, it is still needed. Although we're not an agency, all the things that we've accomplished over the years have been because of what people have brought to the committee – people who really care and are trying to work for the city, and for its people. It's a positive thing that the city responded to the need, by legislating a committee, and continues to respond as the city continues to change," Ackerman said.