Monroe County Legislature President Yversha Román sits down with Jaclyn to talk about her path through Rochester's political landscape — and what it really costs a community when its leaders stop pushing back against "no."
About This Episode
There is a particular kind of leadership that doesn't announce itself. It shows up in committee rooms, in language access hearings, in the unglamorous work of making sure that the people a system was built to ignore actually have a seat at the table. That's the kind of leadership Yversha Román practices — and it's exactly what Jaclyn Richard wanted to put on the record in this conversation.
As Monroe County Legislature President, Román occupies one of the most consequential civic positions in the Rochester region. She didn't get there on a smooth path. The word "no" appears often in her story — not as a dead end but as a starting point. No, you don't have the experience. No, this isn't the right time. No, you're not the right person. Román has heard versions of all of it, and her career is a case study in what happens when someone decides that "no" is a navigable obstacle rather than a final answer.
In this conversation, Jaclyn and Yversha dig into some of the specific fights that have defined her tenure — including pushes for language access that ensure non-English speakers can meaningfully participate in county government, and efforts on pay equity that are as practical as they are principled. These aren't abstract policy positions. They're decisions that affect people's daily lives, and Román speaks about them with the clarity of someone who has done the work of explaining them over and over again in rooms where not everyone wanted to hear it.
What strikes Jaclyn in this conversation — and what listeners will notice — is that Román's leadership style doesn't trade in grievance. She's clear-eyed about the barriers she's faced, but she's not interested in dwelling there. The emphasis is always on the pivot: what can be done, who can be brought along, what the next step looks like when the obvious path is blocked. That pivot is where real civic leadership lives, and it's rarer than it should be.
This episode also gets at something larger about Rochester's civic identity. The city has a history of producing people who take on institutional structures and force them to bend — sometimes slowly, sometimes painfully, but consistently. Román fits squarely in that tradition. The conversation is a reminder that the health of a city is measured not just by its economy or its headlines, but by the quality of its public leadership. On that measure, Rochester has something to be proud of. Yversha Román is proof.
About the Host
Jaclyn Richard is the host of I've Got a Little Brooklyn in Me, a Rochester, NY podcast celebrating the entrepreneurs, civic leaders, artists, and changemakers shaping the city's future. New episodes drop biweekly on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.