Worthen to run in new Hispanic House district

SPRINGDALE — Diana Gonzales Worthen will run for the new state House District 9 seat as a Democrat, she announced Wednesday.

District 9 is the majority Hispanic district in eastern Springdale created during legislative district boundary changes last year.

“I’m the granddaughter of immigrants. My father was an English learner who served in the U.S. Navy and became a computer programmer, and my mother grew up harvesting fruits and vegetables as the daughter of migrant farm workers and became housekeeping supervisor at our local hospital,” Worthen’s announcement says.

Worthen, 60, received her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Arkansas in 2004 while working in Springdale and Rogers public schools as an English as a Second Language science teacher. She currently works in the University of Arkansas System as director of Project Reach, a program where her team teaches online classes for Springdale teachers for them to qualify as ESL instructors and prepares bilingual and bicultural professionals to become teachers.

Washington County gained legislators when state district boundaries were redrawn after the 2020 U.S. Census to equalize populations. Washington County gained population relative to most other Arkansas counties. Creating a majority Hispanic district to give the state’s growing Hispanic population a voice was a goal in creating the district, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said when the new borders were unveiled.

Worthen is the first candidate to announce for District 9. The district stretches from the Washington-Benton County line in the north to Don Tyson Parkway in the south. It touches Thompson Street in the west and Sonora Road in the east.

In 2009, Worth en co-founded One Community, a Springdale nonprofit group working to promote access to education resources, health and mental health resources and leadership development programming. She’s also the co-founder of the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas, an organization celebrating culture and community and that grants scholarships to local students.

House members serve two-year terms. The base salary is $44,357 a year, not including per diem and expenses.