A decade after serving in one of Wichita State’s top student leadership roles, Joseph Shepard is now running for Wichita City Council. He’s one of five candidates running for the District 1 seat. 

Shepard said his ability to collaborate and build consensus with those who hold different beliefs and opinions from his own makes him a strong candidate. 

“When we speak about cultivating strong communities, economic advancement and building that trust between people and local government,” Shepard said. “You have to have somebody who’s able to effectively work with different people from different walks of life, from a racial standpoint, socioeconomic standpoint, and ideological standpoint.”

To him, shaping a democracy takes collaboration to advocate for policies and projects that meet the needs of Wichita’s District 1 residents.

“I’m the right person at the right time with the challenges that we’re facing,” Shepard said. “Our community is facing a homelessness crisis. I’ve experienced homelessness, and while we have made progress with the multi-agency center, I know that that’s not enough.”

Incumbent District 1 Councilmember Brandon Johnson gave his endorsement to Shepard early in his campaign. Johnson, who has served as District 1’s City Council member since 2017, is term-limited and will leave office in Jan. 2026.

“Joseph’s body of work, I think, speaks for itself, and my hope is that on the fifth (of August), he not only gets through the primary, but wins it,” Johnson said. “And then we get into November, and he is the next council member.”

Johnson said that he believes in Shepard’s ability to succeed in the role. 

“I think Joseph’s a better speaker than I am,” Johnson said. “I think Joseph will end up being a better council member than I have been. My belief in him is pretty high. He’s always continued to deliver, and I think he will again.”

Shepard said he doesn’t take the endorsement lightly, having known Johnson for over a decade now.

“And so endorsing me in this race with five people in it, I know I don’t take that lightly,” Shepard said. “And he (Johnson) made me earn it honestly, which I’m grateful for.”

The two candidates with the most votes from the Aug. 5 primary election will progress to the general election on Nov. 4. Alongside Shepard on the ballot are Aujanae Bennett, Darryl Carrington, Lawanda Deshazer and Chris Pumpelly.

Earlier in July, residents got a taste of each candidate’s personality and values at a public forum on Wichita State’s campus hosted by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative.

During the question-and-answer portion, Shepard received attention from Pumpelly regarding his ties to WSU and its alumni he’d hypothetically serve alongside, including Mayor Lily Wu and Dalton Glasscock.

In response to a question about mental health in Wichita, Pumpelly began with a direct callout to Shepard, prompting the moderator to ask him to “focus on the question,” along with calls from the audience to be respectful. 

“I got to say that it’s not rumor or suspicion that Joseph Shepard was supporting Lily Wu and stabbed Brandon Whipple in the back and turned our progress backwards,” Pumpelly said. “He did it intentionally.”

Shepard denied the allegations of ‌relationships with WSU alumni Glasscock and Wu and said that they don’t define him.

“While others have suggested my relationship,(with) Dalton Glasscock and Lily Wu define who I am, I’m here to tell you that my mother gave me a name at birth — and that name is Joseph William Shephard,” he said. “… I stand for diversity, equity, and inclusion. I stand for the public arts … the parks … and fighting for my neighbors.”

In a post on his campaign website, Shepard further responded to the allegations about his influence in the 2023 Wichita mayoral election.

“Blaming me for the former mayor’s loss is not only unfair — it’s false,” Shepard said in a written statement. “It’s comical and almost flattering to think I exert that kind of influence, but alas, the math doesn’t support it. And I’ve always wished him (Brandon Whipple) well.”

One of the main points in Shepard’s campaign is rebuilding trust in local government. For him, that looks like being accessible and getting information out to relevant people regarding government decisions.

“I think one of the biggest problems with local government is that it is not convenient,” Shepard said. “… It’s just not conducive for not just working-class folks, (but) for anybody. To be completely honest, we have to bring local government to the people.”

If elected, Shepard said his goals for his first year include improving communication regarding economic development and emphasizing affordability in transitional housing. This would help individuals experiencing homelessness move into permanent, affordable homes.

“Let’s look at how we can make it more reasonable and also efficient for developers to come in and build at a rate in which that is cost-effective,” Shepard said. “So that they don’t have to pass the cost on to the renter and increase their rent.”

Shepard also wants City Hall to involve young people in the day-to-day decisions.

“That means no longer making it optional for a youth representative to be on district advisory boards,” Shepard said.

Additionally, he wants to give youth members of the District Advisory Boards a vote.

“So even if you do have a young person on your board, which isn’t required, that young person doesn’t even get to vote,” Shepard said. “Which is just a recommendation to the City Council on development, zoning changes, all these things.”

Shepard said he wants to open other city boards and commissions to have a youth representative as well. 

“If I advocate for it, and it happens, and I get consensus from the council. Now the next part is finding people who actually want to do it,” Shepard said. “So we can’t just talk about it. We have to be about it.”

Looking back, moving forward

Shepard served two terms as Wichita State’s student body president from 2015-17. As president, he had a sharp focus on diversity and, at times, a thorny relationship with WSU administration. 

He moved to Wichita during his senior year of high school and decided this was where he’d call home.

“My dad had moved my senior year of high school to Wichita, Kansas, to pastor the oldest Black church in Wichita,” Shepard said. “And two weeks prior to school, starting at Wichita State, I kind of changed my entire trajectory and said, ‘This is home for me.’”

He attributes much of what he knows about leadership to his time as WSU’s student body president. It’s rare for a student to serve two terms as president, and Shepard didn’t take the typical approach to his leadership. 

“I took my job as a student body president very serious, because I take my job as a public servant serious,” Shepard said. “So when folks were coming to me with challenges or harm or hurt that they may have experienced, I immediately jumped into action and advocated, in some cases, without knowing the full story.”

He said that at times people gained a perspective of him that “was not true:” Being a “rebel rouser” or only caring about certain groups of people.

“If you rewind back 10-11 years ago, I tried the strategy of going in, flipping over tables and saying, ‘This needs to be fixed. It needs to be fixed,’” he said. “Now, Joseph Shepherd still has that advocacy inside of him, right? But Joseph Shepherd has also learned that our strategy has to be a little bit different when we are working with folks who, unfortunately, don’t understand why we are advocating for the things that we are advocating for.”

He admitted that he “wasn’t the perfect student body president,” but what he didn’t admit to many was the grueling job hunt after college. 

“I was applying to job after job after job. No one wanted to hire me,” Shepard said. “When I would call for feedback, confidential feedback, I would get was my time as student body president at Wichita State upsetted the apple cart, right? It made a lot of people uncomfortable.”

Unable to pay for housing and contemplating moving back in with family, Shepard said he lived in a house owned by a fraternity brother while he got back on his feet. 

“When I finally did get the call, it came from a white Republican gubernatorial candidate who wanted to hire me,” Shepard said. 

It was Ed O’Malley, then president of the Kansas Leadership Center, who gave Shepard his shot at redemption.

“He was like, ‘You know, I know what people have said about you. I know what you’ve been through,’” Shepard said. “‘I want to use this as an opportunity to show you how to lead more effectively.’ That changed my entire mindset.”

When remembering that moment, O’Malley said Shepard was qualified for the job and impressed his team. 

“What I recall was on my mind is I knew he had been through a lot,” O’Malley said. “… I didn’t know him, but I was proud of the exercise of leadership. I saw him try … I was really proud of Joseph for reviewing his role as an opportunity to make a transformative difference.”

Shepard worked at the Kansas Leadership Center as a program specialist for over a year, then worked at Newman University as a director of multicultural engagement. At Newman, he navigated the complexities of advocating for LGBTQ+ students and the cultural norms at a private Catholic institution. 

“I had to come in and learn a whole new culture,” Shepard said. “What was acceptable, what was not acceptable, while also still trying to create and hold space for some of these important issues that ensured everyone had a sense of mattering and belonging.”

Currently, outside of campaigning, Joseph serves as the chief of staff at Lead for America, a nonprofit focused on building community leaders in rural towns and cities. He is also working on a doctorate in education leadership, where he is studying the experiences of Black student body presidents at predominantly white institutions.

“I don’t think a lot of people had the intent to harm me. I just think they didn’t know how to deal with somebody like me,” Shepard said. “And so how do I help other folks who are going into these spaces that probably were not built with us in mind to say, ‘Here’s how we can work alongside this person to navigate these systems that could be very difficult to navigate, coming from those lived experiences and showing up the way that they do?’”

Shepard has, in some ways, never left WSU. To him, the university is a valuable part of District 1.

“Wichita State is in District 1,” Shepard said. “I’m not leaving you out of this conversation, or business owners, or nonprofit leaders, or our unhoused neighbors.” 

He likened the sentiment to an old saying: “Nothing about us without us.”