Where Are They Now? Sandra Espinosa

Sandra Espinosa has worked hard her entire life to lift others up and empower them. Whether it’s through her job as a family meeting facilitator with Child Protective Services, or her service work in Dublin, or simply by being a role model in her family and community, Espinosa finds purpose in making life better for those around her.

“I have a passion for giving back and representing the Hispanic community, so I am there to volunteer wherever and whenever I can,” she said.

Espinosa graduated from Dublin High School in 2001, and went on to Tarleton State University. She studied criminal justice with a minor in sociology, and was active in Kappa Delta Chi, a community service-based sorority for Hispanic women.

Throughout college, Espinosa worked at the Dublin Police Department as a dispatcher, and when she graduated from Tarleton in 2006, she stayed on at her job for a year. The next year, she worked for the Dublin Municipal Court under Judge Latrelle Cain, and then worked as the juvenile probation officer for Erath County.

Her next job came about through her network of friends from college. “I had several friends that had worked for Child Protective Services and they had been trying to recruit me for a while,” she said. “I wasn’t ready for it until 2009, and then I decided to make the move.”

She started out working in Hamilton County, then moved back to the Erath County branch in 2012.

Espinosa has had several jobs within the agency over the past 13 years. She started as a caseworker, then worked as an investigator and as a specialist in conservatorship. For the past six years, she’s been a facilitator under the family group decision making specialists.

“In my current position, I coordinate and facilitate family meetings,” she said. “We get together with the family and their support system and talk about developing a plan to ensure that the children or child is going to be in a safe, stable home environment.”

When she gets a referral from the department of a family who wants to have a meeting, she sets up the schedule. “I asked them to bring their support system whether it’s family, friends, neighbors, church members, or anybody that’s been a support to them,” she said. “Even after the department steps out, these are the people that are going to be in their lives.”

During the meeting, she leads the conversation, making sure that everyone gets a chance to voice their thoughts and options. She especially enjoys facilitating meetings with Spanishspeaking families. “It is very pleasing for me that I’m able to provide families with resources in their own language,” she said. “And sometimes families that can’t speak English are worried that they won’t be able to let people know what’s really going on, and that’s where I come on board and I’m able to let them express themselves in their own language and then translate to the department, and hopefully we we all come out with a good outcome that’s best for the children involved.”

Espinosa finds her work rewarding. “I love what I do,” she said. “There’s ups and downs, but I’m still there. My favorite part of my job is just knowing that I’ve been able to help a family or a child in need to the best of my abilities.”

She emphasizes that Child Protective Services does not deserve the reputation that it can sometimes have. “A lot of people think that CPS is just evil, but we’re not evil,” she said. “We’re there to help the families and try to get them resources. And it’s not always about removing the children. It’s about making sure that they’re in a safe environment.”

While she loves her job at CPS, Espinosa hopes to someday go back to school. “My goal is to pursue a master’s,” she said. “I would love to do counseling, to provide bilingual services for families. I’m also looking to immigration law, because that’s something that I also have a passion for.”

When Espinosa is not working, she can often be found giving back to her community in other ways. “I’m on the board for the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, and I assist with a lot of our community events to try to help put things on for our locals,” she said. “We’ll be working on the Hispanic Heritage celebration here soon for the month of October.”

She’s also involved as an alum of her college sorority, Kappa Delta Chi. She advises her chapter and assists with events and recruits new members when she can. “I feel that Greek Life opened a lot for me when I was in college and after college because the network that you have after you graduate is just amazing,” she said. “It’s always good to know people in different places and different careers because you never know when you’re going to need a change in career or somebody else is looking for a job and you can help them.”

She also has time for her personal goals. A few weeks ago, she completed a spiritual walk called Caminata a San Juan de Los Lagos. “I walked 147 miles from my dad’s state in Mexico to a cathedral in San Juan de Los Lagos,” she said. “I had grown up seeing people do this walk, and this year I was determined to do it. There were times that I cried, I laughed, and I felt memories reflected back to life. I kept telling myself, ‘I can do this. I can do this,’ and kept praying that I would finish the walk.”

Three and a half days of walking later, Espinosa finally arrived at the cathedral. “It was just an amazing feeling,” she said. “I had no soreness, no pain, and it was just like, I have achieved something I didn’t think I was going to. People kept asking me if I would do it again, and I would, in a heartbeat.”

Espinosa currently lives in Dublin with her husband of 17 years, Arturo Espinosa. The two met at a dance and were married in 2005. They have a three-year-old son named Mario. “He’s our pride and joy,” Espinosa said. “We hope to give him everything that we can in life and teach him the value of things. Life is very different than it was when I was growing up. We hope to give him everything that we can and teach him what values are and what good morals and ethics are and hopefully he can have a good education as well.”

Espinosa’s parents, Elpidio and Ilda Luna, live in town as well, as do several of her brothers and sisters. “When we’re not working or are giving our time back to the community, we are just having family time,” Espinosa said. “We get together on the weekends and cook out and watch our nieces and nephews play games. We love to support each other and be there for each other.”

Her family has served as Espinosa’s greatest source of inspiration throughout her life. “My parents have taught us to work hard and dedicate ourselves to what we love to do, and that family is everything,” she said. “They showed [me and my sisters] that we have to be independent women and go through life with our heads held high.”

Finding her independence as a woman has not always been an easy path for Espinosa. “I was born and raised in a Hispanic community, and it’s always been the men that were the providers or the head of household — but my dad taught us that no matter whether we’re men or women, we’ve got to be head of household mentality all the time to strive to get places in life,” she said.

“My advice for any future Dublin graduate is to live life to the fullest,” Espinosa said. “Enjoy every single bit of life, and really, really go for what you want to do. Set your goals, no matter how hard it may seem. It’s always a struggle to begin, but the final outcome is the best thing in life.”

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.