About Kevin
My name is Kevin Roden and it is with great humility and honor that I seek to serve the Denton community in the District One City Council seat.
I moved to Denton nearly 20 years ago to study at UNT’s world-renown College of Music. As many UNT graduates experience, this great city makes a strong case for sticking around and developing roots. I simply can’t imagine where else I could live where I can browse in one of the nation’s best bookstores, play with my kids on the steps of the most beautiful courthouse in Texas, nightly listen to internationally recognized classical, jazz, or indie rock music, participate in the intellectual life of two premier universities, and get my fill of tacos al pastor at one of many taquerias – all within walking distance from my house.
My enthusiasm for Denton combined with my passion for education compels me to engage the community, for I’ve found that the citizens of Denton are her greatest asset. For the past 10 years, my wife and I have hosted community gatherings designed to bring strangers and friends together around good food and drink for the purpose of meaningful discussions on a variety of topics. Through hosting thousands of people in our home over the years – politicians, community activists, college students, professors, the homeless, artists, musicians, and even the occasional celebrity – I’ve learned that the only way to engage a city is to engage her citizens. And this has given me a great sense of optimism, for there isn’t a problem facing Denton today that can’t be solved by the enormous amount of creativity, hard work, and energy among her own people. Not only are they Denton’s best asset, they also are currently our most under-utilized one. It’s my goal to change that.
Upon moving into this District, I called up my City Council woman, Charlye Heggins, bought her a cup of tea and chatted about the issues of our part of town. After asking how I could help, she immediately appointed me to serve on a committee charged with revising the City Charter’s term limit language. Soon after that, then Councilman Joe Mulroy appointed me to be on the Historic Landmark Commission where I now serve as Chair of the commission. I also serve on the DCTA Citizen Advisory Team and helped encourage a successful grassroots effort this past year to fight for extended weekday and weekend hours for the upcoming A-Train.
I hope to bring a fresh perspective to the Council. By riding the bus to and from work every day and living in an economically diverse neighborhood, I have a unique perspective on the struggles of our more needy citizens. By pushing a stroller or guiding a tricycle to the park, library, or square nearly every day, I have a unique perspective on the safety and infrastructure needs of our community. By fixing up two dilapidated former rental houses and bringing family life back into a forgotten street, I have a unique perspective on the perils and possibilities of our town’s precious older neighborhoods. By being a father to two year old Rosemary and one month old Francis, I have a unique perspective on the reason why we need a healthy, beautiful, and just city that can help foster the developing souls of our future.
I work as an administrator with the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at UNT, where I daily engage the minds of our state’s best and brightest teenagers. I have a BA in Political Science from UNT, a MA in Philosophy from the University of Dallas, and am finishing a PhD in Philosophy from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas.
More important than all this, I am married to the beautiful and always charming Emily Roden, a former Newton Rayzor Elementary School music teacher who is currently working in the educational publishing industry. We live in a Historic Landmark house on Texas Street with our two children, Rosemary Louise and Francis Paul.