March is National Women’s History Month, recognizing and honoring women and women’s history.

With a 2025 theme of “Moving Forward Together,” Johnson County joins the nation in celebrating Women's History Month in March celebrating women educating and inspiring generations. This year's theme celebrates the significant role women have played in building a more equitable future through their dedication to education and leadership.

We wanted to take a moment to show appreciation for the women, past and present, who have guided, served or contributed in various ways to Johnson County. Thank you for the impact you make on our organization and our community every day.

Johnson County Board of County Commissioners

There have been 117 members of the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners elected in the 170-year history of Johnson County. Only 13, or 11%, of the county commissioners have been women. They include the four female commissioners now serving on the Board.

District 1

• Sue E. Weltner
• Becky Fast (Current)

District 2

• Susie Wolf
• Johnna Lingle

District 3

• Annabeth Surbaugh
• Charlotte O’Hara
• Julie Brewer (Current)

District 4

• Janet D. Leick
• Dolores Furtado
• Elaine Beckers-Braun
• Joan Bengtson
• Janeé Hanzlick (Current and Vice Chair of the Board)

District 6

• Shirley Allenbrand (Current)

This is the second time in Johnson County history that the board has had women in a majority. The first time occurred in the mid-1990s when four women served as county commissioners, then with a board of five members.

Johnna Lingle was first woman elected county commissioner in 1981 after being the first woman mayor in Lenexa (1973-1981). She served five consecutive terms (1981-2001) as Second District county commissioner.

In 1982, Lingle also was selected as the board’s first female chair, repeating that role in 1987, 1992 and 1997. At that time, the chairman was not elected by voters and was appointed annually by the board.

Annabeth Surbaugh, who was Third District county commissioner from 1993-2003, became the first publicly elected, at-large chair in 2003. She served two terms until 2011.

Johnson County Government Management

Penny Postoak Ferguson has served as county manager since 2018. Management of Johnson County Government has had an appointed chief executive officer by the Board of County Commissioners for 40 years.

The current County Manager Penny Postoak Ferguson is the first woman to fill that role as it exists today. She was named county manager on July 15, 2018, after serving as interim county manager for six and a half months.

Postoak Ferguson joined the Johnson County leadership team as an assistant county manager in June 2010 and was deputy county manager from August 2012 to the end of 2017.

Julie Karins became deputy county manager on Feb. 27, 2023. Previous leadership team members included Bernice Duletski, assistant county manager from 2005-2010.

Johnson County and City Halls

Women gained the right to vote in Kansas municipal elections in 1887. In Johnson County history, Margaret Kelly became the first female mayor in 1890 in the city of Edgerton.

Mayor Kelly and the entire ticket of women candidates running for police judge and five city councilors won in 1890, leading to what the Kansas City Times reported as municipal affairs “administered by a petticoat government.”

According to Johnson County Museum, after serving only about a month “all of the women resigned (on May 19) from their positions after becoming offended by restrictions placed on proposed reforms” by law and men in the town. A special election was called to fill the vacancies – all by men.

It would be another 81 years for a woman to be elected mayor in Johnson County when Margaret W. Jordan was elected mayor of Leawood in 1971, serving one two-year term. Jordan then served as the first female Johnson County District Attorney from 1973 until 1977.

Current mayors in Johnson County cities include Melanie Hepperly, Fairway; Julie Sayers, Lenexa; Sollie Flora, Mission; and Rosemary Podrebarac, Westwood Hills.

Historically, Edgerton was not the first community in Kansas to elect women to serve in city government. That milestone occurred in 1887 when the town of Argonia, Kansas (Sumner County) selected Susanna Salter as the first woman mayor in the United States.

Also in 1887, voters in Syracuse became the first local government in Kansas to elect an all-female city council, but a man served as mayor. A year later, Oskaloosa became the first town in the nation with an all-woman city government, including city council members and the mayor.

Johnson County and Judges

In Johnson County history, Carolee Sauder Leek was the first career woman lawyer in Johnson County. She also was the county’s first female municipal judge, serving from 1965 to 1969 in the city of Mission.

The Tenth Judicial District of Kansas, often called Johnson County District Court, had its first female judge with the appointment of Jeanette Sheldon to the bench in 1977. At the time, the Johnson County Courthouse had four or five judges. Judge Sheldon retired in 2002.

Linda Trigg became the first female magistrate judge in 1999 and retired in 2017.

Rhonda Mason was appointed to the 10th Judicial District in 2016. When she was sworn in 2017, Mason became the first black district court judge to serve Johnson County and only the second in Kansas.

The Johnson County Courthouse currently has 22 district court and four magistrate judges. Nine, or 35%, of the judges are women.

Johnson County and Law Enforcement

In January 2025, former Spring Hill Chief of Police Cindy Henson joined newly elected Johnson County Sheriff Byron Roberson’s leadership team as one of two undersheriffs. In her new role, she became the first female undersheriff in Johnson County history.

The first woman police chief in county history was Ellen Hanson, who served from 1991 for 21 years at the Lenexa Police Department.  Her law enforcement career spanned 38 years at the department.

Hanson retired in October 2012 from the department. She unretired in January 2014 to become the first woman police chief, serving in an interim role, at the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. Her second retirement began effective at the end of 2014 when a new police chief was named.  

On a sad note, Officer Deanna Rose was the first woman police officer in Kansas history and the first Overland Park police officer to die in the line of duty. The Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, established in 1978 in Overland Park, was renamed in her honor in 1985.

The first woman elected sheriff in Kansas was Mabel Chase who served one term from 1926 to 1928 in Kiowa County.