Meet Ricky Santiago

I have been a public servant for 7 years. I have a masters in organizational leadership and a certificate in human rights. I have lived in district 29 since I was 16 years old. I am the eldest of 3, my sister who is an entrepreneur and my brother who is an airman, currently stationed in Japan. My mother was a Bilingual Instructor at Jtown Elementary for 18 years, my father has worked for the Social Security Administration for 20 years, proud son of union members.

I can tell my life story in two parts, before and after Kentucky. My family moved to Kentucky when I was about 14 years old, I have spent over half of my life as a Kentuckian, and while I was not born in this great state, I owe a great deal to the opportunities provided to me and my family, by simply creating our lives here. It wasn't easy at first, but we made it our own, and I returned to this land the moment I could with my wife to begin my own family.

It's here where I learned how to play football, a game I love so much I got involved in high school as soon as I could, coaching at Fern Creek High School. It's in Kentucky that I learned how to drive, I had my first love, and I saw my siblings grow up and become great people in our community. Right there on Beulah Church Road is where I saw my family's home being constructed from the ground up.

My family has a history of uninterrupted public services for 4 four generations, soldiers, teachers, social security, and government administrators and more can be found on this family tree, with Kentuckian roots. My mother was one of the first Latino ministers to start a public health initiative, doing health and cancer screenings at no cost in the early 2000's. It is from them that I get my call to public services, to be a servant leader. In 2017 I completed my master's in organizational leadership focused on workforce development and recruitment.

In 2022, my son Leonardo was diagnosed with Level 2 autism. As active parents we quickly began to try to find as many resources as possible for him, unfortunately, we were met with the harsh reality that services are few and the wait lists are long. This ignited my fire to run for public office. As great as Kentucky has been to us, and I owe a great deal to this state, there are always new challenges that we must prepare and face together so that Kentucky remains the great state it is, for all.