Virtual Town Hall
DEI and Ethnic Studies Policy in the 88th Session of the Texas State Legislature
Sponsored by Black Brown Dialogues on Policy
CONVENERS
Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D., Co-Convener, Black Brown Dialogues on Policy
Gary Bledsoe, Esq., Texas NAACP President
Colette Phillips, CEO, Get Konnected!
PROGRAM
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM—Welcome to BBDP and this Virtual Town Hall
- Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D., Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Texas at Austin
- Gary Bledsoe, President, Texas NAACP
- Rudy Rosales, Chair, Texas LULAC
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM—Panel I: Let’s talk about Proposed Anti-DEI Policy in the State of Texas
Moderator: Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
- The Honorable Senator Royce West
- Julia Brookins, Special Projects Administrator, American Historical Association
- Danielle Clealand, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Mexican American and Latino Studies and African American and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin
- Roque Aguon, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociocultural Foundations of Education, University of Texas El Paso
- Dr. Stella Flores, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Texas at Austin
11:15 AM – 11:45 AM—Gen Z Student Panel I: Let’s talk about what DEI means to me.
Moderator: Pablo Díaz, Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin
- Mohamed Ade Mohamed, Fort Worth, Texas
- Janeva Wilson, Graduate Student, University of Texas at Austin
- Julianna “Jules” Collado, Graduate Student, University of Texas at Austin
- Jesse José Garcia, Lubbock, Texas
- Mateo Rosiles, Lubbock, Texas
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM—Panel I: Reflection on Gen Z Student Panel I
Moderator: Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
- Julia Brookins, Special Projects Administrator, American Historical Association
- Danielle Clealand, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Mexican American and Latino Studies and African American and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin
- Roque Aguon, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociocultural Foundations of Education, University of Texas El Paso
- Stella Flores, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Texas at Austin
12:00 PM – 12:30 PM—Teach-In on Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory
Moderator: Kevin Kumashiro, Ph.D., University of San Francisco
- Francesca Lopez, Ph.D. and Christine Sleeter, Ph.D., co-authors Critical Race Theory and Its Critics. NY: Teachers College Press, 2022.
12:30 PM – 12:45 PM
Remarks from Honorable Chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus Texas State Representative Victoria Neave Criado and the Honorable Chair of the Black Legislative Caucus Texas State Representative Ron Reynolds
12:45 PM – 2:00 PM—Panel II: Let’s talk about Ethnic Studies Policy in the State of Texas
Moderator: Tony Diaz, Director, El Librotraficante and Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say
- The Honorable Texas State Representative Christina Morales
- The Honorable Aicha Davis, Texas State Board of Education Member
- Valerie Martinez, Ph.D., Chair, K-12 Committee of the National Association for Chicana/o Studies Tejas Foco
- Dwight Watson, Ph.D., Associate Professor Emeritus, Texas State University
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM—Gen Z Student Panel II: Let’s talk about what Ethnic Studies means to me
Moderator: Julianna “Jules” Collado, Education Policy and Planning, Master’s Student
- Xue Tang, Liberal Arts and Science Academy
- Jeremiah Baldwin, University of Texas
- Aldo Frausto, University of Texas
- Abasifreke “A.B.” Udosen, Liberal Arts and Science Academy
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM—Panel II: Reflection on Gen Z Student Panel II
- The Honorable Texas State Representative Christina Morales
- The Honorable Aicha Davis, Texas State Board of Education Member
- Valerie Martinez, Ph.D., Chair, K-12 Committee of the National Association for Chicana/o Studies Tejas Foco
- Dwight Watson, Ph.D., Associate Professor Emeritus, Texas State President
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM—Closing Reflection by BBDP Board
Moderator: Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
- Alberta Phillips, former Journalist at Austin American-Statesman
- Emilio Zamora, Ph.D., Clyde Rabb Littlefield Chair in Texas History, University of Texas at Austin
- Gary Bledsoe, Esq., President, Texas NAACP
- Junichi Lockett, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow, Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis (IUPRA), University of Texas at Austin
Learn more about the
Panelists
Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
Dr. Angela Valenzuela is a professor in both the Educational Policy and Planning Program within the Department of Education Leadership and Policy, as well as Cultural Studies in Education Program within the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin where she also serves as the director of the Texas Center for Education Policy.
Dr. Valenzuela is also the author of award-winning Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring(1999) Leaving Children Behind: How “Texas-style” Accountability Fails Latino Youth (2005), and Growing Critically Conscious Teachers: A Social Justice Curriculum for Educators of Latino/a Youth (Teachers College Press, 2016).
Dr. Valenzuela co-founded Academia Cuauhtli (or “Eagle Academy” in Nahuatl), a cultural revitalization program of instruction in Spanish for fourth and fifth graders from eight East Austin ISD schools. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and she also serves as co-chair of the National LULAC Higher Education Committee. She also founded and operates an education blog titled, Educational Equity, Politics, and Policy in Texas.
Julia Brookins
Julia Brookins is the special projects coordinator at the AHA, where she has been part of the team that develops initiatives to advance history in education and public life since 2012. She is currently working with colleagues to lead the AHA’s responses to public controversies about teaching America’s past. She directed the nationwide AHA Tuning project to articulate the core disciplinary learning outcomes of a history major, and she also works on the History Gateways initiative to improve student learning and equity in introductory college history courses.
Julia also helps with collection, analysis, and communication about data on the history discipline, and serves on the editorial board of Perspectives on History magazine. Outside of the AHA, she is part of the working group developing a new, equity-based plan for historic preservation in the city of Austin, Texas.
She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, with a focus on immigration and citizenship in the nineteenth-century U.S. Southwest.
Kevin Kumashiro, Ph.D.
Dr. Kevin Kumashiro is an internationally recognized expert on educational policy, school reform, teacher preparation, and educational equity and social justice, with a wide-ranging list of accomplishments and awards as a scholar, educator, leader, and advocate.
He is the former Dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, and is the award-winning author or editor of ten books, including Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning toward Social Justice, and most recently, Surrendered: Why Progressives are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education.
His recent awards include the 2016 Social Justice in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Christine Sleeter, Ph.D.
Christine E. Sleeter, PhD. is Professor Emerita in the College of Education at California State University Monterey Bay, where she was a founding faculty member. She has served as a visiting professor at several universities, including the University of Maine, University of Colorado Boulder, Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Spain. She is past President of the National Association for Multicultural Education, and past Vice President of the American Educational Research Association.
Her research focuses on anti-racist multicultural education, ethnic studies, and teacher education. She has published over 170 articles and 21 books, most recently Critical Race Theory and its Critics (with F. A. López, Teachers College Press, 2023). She has also published three novels, the most recent being Family History in Black and White.
She is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and of the National Education Policy Center, and a member of the National Academy of Education. Awards for her work include the American Educational Research Association Social Justice in Education Award, the Chapman University Paulo Freire Education Project Social Justice Award, and the Willamette University Distinguished Alumni Citation for Professional Achievement.
Rep. Ron Reynolds
Representative Reynolds was sworn in on January 10, 2011 as State Representative, House District 27. Ron is currently serving his seventh term in the Texas House. He is the first African American State Representative in Fort Bend County since Reconstruction. Reynolds was named “2021 87th Session Legislator of the Year” by Fort Bend United and The Young & the Politics. He was voted by his House colleagues as “Freshman Legislator of the Year” and “Public Servant of the Year” by the Houston Minority Contractors Association. He served as the House Minority Whip during the 83rd & 84th Legislative sessions. Reynolds is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and 100 Black Men of America.
Reynolds is the Chair, Texas Legislative Black Caucus and Vice Chair of the Texas Energy & Climate Caucus. Founder and past Chair, Texas House Progressive Caucus. He also serves as the Legislative Leader for the Texas State NAACP and the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats. Reynolds serves as the ranking member on the House Committee on Environmental Regulation and Land & Resource Management.
Prior to being elected State Representative Reynolds was an Associate Municipal Judge for the City of Houston, Past President of the Houston Lawyers Association and Past President of the Missouri City & Vicinity NAACP. He is a recipient of three Honorary Doctorate’s; “Doctor of Humanities” from Trinity International University of Ambassadors, “Doctor of Philosophy in Humanitarianism” and a “Doctorate of Divinity” from Pendleton Chapel Seminary. Rep. Reynolds is a devout Christian. He is a proud father of three wonderful children.
Christina Morales
When Representative Christina Morales’ grandparents, Felix H. and Angela V. Morales, came to Houston in 1931, they began a family tradition of community-building. At the time, few funeral homes in Houston offered dignified burials to Latino families. They established Morales Funeral Home in 1931 and founded KLVL La Voz Latina, the first Spanish-language radio station to broadcast news for the Gulf Coast, in 1946. It is from this upbringing that Christina learned to view the community as her family and build on the work that her grandparents began.
At age 23, following the death of her grandmother, Christina assumed ownership of Morales Funeral Home. She would continue to uphold its reputation for excellent service, forming long-lasting bonds with the families she consoled in their darkest hour. Under Christina’s leadership, Morales Funeral Home has become a Houston institution and a pillar of the Second Ward community.
In 1997, Christina built on her grandparents’ legacy of community engagement by establishing the Annual Morales Back to School Supplies Giveaway. Twenty-four years later, the program continues to serve more than 2,000 students each year, providing school supplies to families in Houston’s most underprivileged communities.
Determined to expand her commitment to the community where she was raised, Christina successfully ran for State Representative in House District 145 in 2019. She is proud to represent the people of Harris County, and has garnered praise from her colleagues for exceptional constituent engagement. During the 87th Legislature, Christina is dedicated to writing and supporting legislation to improve public education, expand access to quality healthcare, bridge the Digital Divide, and ensure Texans’ right to vote. Christina is the Vice Chair of the International Relations & Economic Development Committee and a member of the Local & Consent Calendars and Culture, Recreation & Tourism Committees.
Christina is blessed with two children and twin grandsons. She currently serves as President, CEO, and Funeral Director of Morales Funeral Home and President of the Morales Memorial Foundation.
Valerie A. Martinez, Ph.D
Dr. Martínez earned her Ph.D. in history from UT in 2016 and is currently a fellow with the Institute for Historical Studies.
Her dissertation, entitled “Latina Ambassadors: The Benito Juárez Squadron and Pan Americanism during World War II,” looks at the role of Latina military participation in contributing to historically-contingent sentiments of Pan-American unity. It netted her three fellowships from the TSHA: the Catarino and Evangelina Hernández Research Fellowship in Latino History, the John H. Jenkins Research Fellowship in Texas History, and the Ellen Clarke Temple Research Fellowship in Texas Women’s History.
Finally, Dr. Martínez also won the NACCS Tejas Dissertation Award, granted for “an outstanding dissertation that best represents a significant topic related to the Mexican American experience in Texas.”
Alberta Phillips
Alberta Phillips is a local writer and award-winning journalist, who began her career at an African American publication, The Call and Times, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She also worked at the Westbury Times in Long Island, N.Y., and freelanced for some other black publications. The majority of her career has been with the Austin city daily, The Austin American-Statesman, where she rose from a neighbor reporter to Editorial Writer and Columnist, taking the pulse of Austin’s Communities of Color for more than 30 years. While at the Statesman, she covered a variety of beats, including public schools, city hall, utilities, race relations, environmental issues, business and industry, and city, state and national politics. She was the first African American woman to serve in the Texas Capitol Press Corps, covering Gov. Ann Richards and Gov. George W. Bush.
She has won numerous awards for journalism excellence and was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. Ms. Phillips left the American-Statesman in 2019 to pursue other interests, including a book project. In September 2020 to respond to elections, the COVID 19 crisis and the George Floyd killing and its aftermath, Ms. Phillips launched a public affairs and news show called, ATX Now In Color! The show, a public affairs program that focuses on Communities of Color in the Austin Metropolitan Area, airs Tuesdays at noon on KAZI-FM community radio (88.7 FM).
In addition to serving as the first African American Board President for Texas Campaign for the Environment, and for the ECHO Board (Ending Homelessness in Austin and Travis County) she also gives back to the Austin and Travis County area with service on other boards: as Commissioner on the City of Austin’s Joint Sustainability Commission; and current member Of the ECHO Governing Board; and the Travis County African American Cultural Heritage Commission as an interim Commissioner, as a founding member.
Current projects include curating the Peggy Drake Holland Student Lounge at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin; and curating a 17-mile citywide bike tour featuring African American historical sites in all quarters of Austin. She also serves as chair of the Texas NAACP Press and Publicity Committee.
Junichi Lockett, Ph.D
Junichi Bomani (Lockett, Jr.) is a Black Studies Postdoctoral Policy Fellow in the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis (IUPRA) at the University of Texas at Austin. His research examines critical and innovative approaches to Black youth empowerment to influence transformational efforts in Black community settings.
Gary Bledsoe
Gary Bledsoe is President of the Texas NAACP and has held that position since being elected in 1991. He is an Austin lawyer, who specializes in employment, civil rights, and public interest law. Bledsoe served as Austin Branch President from 1987 to 1991 and has served on the National Board of Directors since 2003. He currently is the Chair of the Housing Committee and Vice-Chair of the Environmental and Climate Justice Subcommittee and the Legal Committee.
Bledsoe’s ties with the NAACP enabled him to make substantial civil rights changes, which include his handling of racial discrimination complaints against the Texas DPS that dismantled racial barriers that prevented minorities and women from becoming Texas Rangers. His involvement in the Cedar Avenue case resulted in heightened public awareness of the Austin Police Department’s mishandling of minority youth and led to widespread changes in how police abuse cases are handled and the creation of a scholarship program for minority youth to attend college or trade school.
Bledsoe joined with Attorney Robert Notzon and others in redistricting to successfully seek the creation of the 9th Congressional District in Texas now held by former NAACP President Alexander Green. In the 2010 round of redistricting he joined with Attorney Notzon, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and attorney Victor Goode from the National Legal Department to defeat the State’s new proposed Congressional, Senate and House redistricting plans in Section 5 litigation and the same group successfully showed vote dilution in the State of Texas House of Representatives map and also the configuration of Congressional District 30 held by Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson in separate Section 2 litigation.
Bledsoe joined with Notzon and the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, attorney Daniel Covich and the Dechert Firm, along with other parties to successfully challenge Texas discriminatory voter identification laws. The landmark settlement resulted in the creation of a scholarship program for college-bound minority youth. Bledsoe’s legal acumen has earned him lawyer of the year awards from the Travis County Bar Association Young Lawyer’s Division and the Attorney General’s Office and an inclusion in the 100 Best Black Lawyer’s in America and a lifetime achievement award from the National Bar Association.
Bledsoe received the Virgil Lott Medal from the University of Texas School of Law as an outstanding alum. He is also the author of the Predatory Lending Principles used by the National NAACP to engage banks and seek to change their practices so that the African-American Community has greater access to capital. These principles resulted from a landmark lawsuit brought by Bledsoe, Vic Feazell, Daniel Covich, Austin Tighe and the National Office of General Counsel among others.
Bledsoe has received awards from the Austin and National NAACP’s, the National Bar Association, the Austin Urban League and the National NAACP and has been accepted as as a member of the 100 Best Black Lawyers in America. The Texas NAACP during Bledsoe’ tenure has President has received the Juanita Jackson Mitchell Award for Legal Advocacy on two separate occasions.
Bledsoe has served for many years as the Vice-Chair of the Legal Committee under the legendary Fred Banks who Chairs the Committee. Bledsoe served on the Board of Regents for Texas Southern University from 2007 to 2017. Bledsoe was the Acting Dean of Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University from November 2017 to July 2019. He is currently with the Bledsoe Law Firm PLLC and is married to Alberta Phillips a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist.
Senator Royce West
Royce West was first elected to the Texas Senate in November 1992. Since taking office, he has represented the 23rd Senatorial District on behalf of the citizens of Dallas County in the Texas Legislature. During his tenure, Senator West has been named by Texas Monthly as one of the 25 most powerful people in Texas politics, been selected for the magazine’s biennial “Ten Best Legislators in Texas” list, and has twice been named as an “Honorable Mention.” Senator West has also received mention on the Associated Press’ “Movers and Shakers” list, as well as the Texas Insider’s “Best Legislators” list.
Senator West is Vice Chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee and is a member of Senate committees on Education Finance, and Transportation. He was appointed to the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting after the 86th Legislative Session (2019). Following the 85th Legislative Session (2017) Senator West was appointed to the Texas Commission on Public School Finance and the Senate Select Committee on Violence in Schools and School Security. During the 83rd Legislative Session (2013), the senator served on the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting and the Joint Committee on Oversight of Higher Education Governance, Excellence & Transparency.
Senator West served on the World Travel & Tourism Council Dallas Host Committee for the 2016 Global Summit. Senator West has been appointed to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth, and Families.
Senator West’s key initiatives include the creation of college admission opportunities for all students, including the establishment of the University of North Texas at Dallas, Dallas’ first state-supported, four-year university, a new law school in downtown Dallas, and a Pharmacy school. Increasing financial aid for college students and funding for the TEXAS grants programs have been priorities for Senator West as well. His legislation created the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center at Prairie View A&M University; increased funding for at-risk youth programs, awarded greater compensation to victims of violent crime, established new standards for child care, enhanced enforcement of protective orders and made better use of criminal justice resources through legislation that created a system of progressive sanctions.
Senator West passed legislation which created a kinship care program whereby qualified relatives can receive state support to help raise children who could otherwise become part of the foster care system. During the 2017 Session, he was able to pass legislation to make the kinship care provisions permanent. As chairman of the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee in 2011, the senator also successfully authored a package of bills to address burdensome practices of homeowners’ associations.
Senator West is a champion for public education, including new programs that provide curriculum choices for public schools. He has promoted school and student accountability efforts, opposed A-F implementation and fights tirelessly for more funding and educational resources for Texas school children.
As one of the original authors of the Top 10% Rule that provides automatic admission to state universities for Texas high school students who graduate at the top of their classes, Senator West has continued his advocacy for the program and has successfully lead efforts to oppose those who would abolish it.
Senator West passed the original legislation that placed in-car video in Texas law enforcement patrol vehicles. In 2015, he continued this precedent of equipping law enforcement with up-to-date technology by passing comprehensive legislation that established statewide policy on the use of body-worn cameras and provided funding to assist police and sheriffs’ departments with the costs of a body camera program.
Senator West’s advocacy for public safety and criminal justice reform continued during the 2017 Legislative Session with his work to pass a bill which will provide grant money to law enforcement agencies for the purchase of high-grade, bulletproof vests. SB30 will instruct citizens and officers on how they should respond during traffic stops and other interactions. Updates to the state’s driver training manual will include similar information. In addition, other legislation passed by Senator West during the 85th Session will require Texas law enforcement agencies to record the interrogations of those arrested on felony charges.
To promote inclusiveness in the procurement practices of state agencies in working with Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs), Senator West created the “Doing Business Texas Style – Spot Bid Contract Fair” and regularly sponsors procurement workshops and seminars. And with the goal of creating greater employment opportunities for Dallas County residents, in 2015 Senator West instituted the D23 Goes 2 Work Job Fair, which connects employers with those seeking work.
In addition to his senatorial duties, Senator West is the managing partner in the law firm of West & Associates, L.L.P. He is also a caring father to his children, a grandfather and devoted husband to Carol R. West, CPA, as well as an active deacon of Good Street Baptist Church.
Danielle Clealand, Ph.D.
Stella M. Flores, Ph.D.
Dr. Stella M. Flores is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin where she holds a cross-school appointment in the Departments of Education, Leadership and Policy and Curriculum and Instruction. She is also Director of Research and Strategy for the Education Research Center also at UT-Austin. In 2022, she became Co-editor of AERA Open. Her research examines the effects of state and federal policies on college access and completion outcomes for low-income and underrepresented populations including immigrant and English Learner students.
Dr. Flores has also published widely on demographic changes in U.S. schools, affirmative action in higher education, and Minority Serving Institutions. In 2003 her coauthored work was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court Gratz v. Bollinger decision (dissenting opinion) and in various amicus briefs submitted to the Supreme Court on affirmative action. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation and the Educational Testing Service.
Prior to entering the Academy, Dr. Flores was a congressional evaluator for the U.S. General Accountability Office and a program specialist for the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Francesca Lopez, Ph.D.
Dr. Francesca López is the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Penn State University. She began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as a high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. Her research has been funded by the American Educational Research Association Grants Program, the Division 15 American Psychological Association Early Career Award, the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation, and other foundations.
López is a co-editor of the National Education Policy Center publications and co-editor of the Review of Educational Research, and is an Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and the National Education Policy Center.
Rep. Victoria Neave Criado
Victoria Neave Criado represents Texas House District 107, which includes parts of Dallas, Mesquite, and Garland. For the 88th Legislative Session, Representative Neave Criado has been appointed to serve as Chair of the House County Affairs Committee and is a member of the Business and Industry Committee. Neave Criado will serve as one of four women appointed to a committee Chairmanship this session and remains the sixth Latina in Texas history to serve as a Committee Chair.
Victoria Neave Criado was also elected to serve as Chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC), the largest and oldest Latino caucus in the country, becoming the first woman elected in thirty years since the late Representative Irma Rangel.
Representative Neave Criado has passed the language of more than two dozen bills, including the historic Lavinia Masters Act—comprehensive legislation to address the backlog of thousands of untested rape kits—as well as various bills to address sexual assault and sexual harassment, domestic violence, and human trafficking in our state, bills to help increase access to higher education and make college more affordable, and legislation that designated June 12 as Women Veterans Day in Texas. The Lavinia Masters Act was allotted an unprecedented $50 million from the state budget in the 86th Legislative Session to tackle the rape kit backlog.
Victoria grew up in Dallas and comes from a working-class family. Her parents emphasized the importance of education and compassion for others. The daughter of a father with a sixth grade education who had a small TV and VCR repair shop in Mesquite, Victoria became the first in her family to graduate from college and earned her degree in Government and Politics from The University of Texas at Dallas and then graduated magna cum laude in the top 3% of her law school class at Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law. She began her legal career as an attorney in the Complex Commercial Litigation group at Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP, a global top 10 law firm. As an attorney, she has represented a broad range of clients from multinational corporations and small businesses to women and children in civil litigation, family, and employment law.
Tony Diaz
Writer, activist, & professor Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante is the author of The Tip of The Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. He is a Cultural Accelerator who has led some of the most fascinating modern movements based in our community. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.
Aicha Davis
Educator Aicha Davis, a Democrat, was elected to the State Board of Education in November 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She represents about 1.7 million Texans who live in parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Davis serves on the board’s Committee on Instruction, which deals with issues such as curriculum and graduation requirements, instructional materials issues, and gifted and talented education. She formerly served as vice chair on the Committee on School Initiatives.
A native of Decatur, Mississippi, Davis began her education career as a sixth-grade reading and science teacher in Louisiana. She later moved to high school where she taught advanced sciences and engineering and coached robotics teams. She was appointed vice chair of the Committee on School Initiatives in 2021.
She moved to Texas in 2011 where she has since worked in the Irving and DeSoto school districts. Davis enrolled in language development classes, studied Spanish, and obtained her English as a Second Language certification so she could better communicate with her Texas students. She also holds a Texas science certification and a principal certification.
Davis is now a doctoral student in education leadership and policy at the University of North Texas. She holds a master’s degree in education administration from that university and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and chemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Davis was a recognized fellow with Leadership ISD Dallas and is a national ranked robotics and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) coach.
As a member of the State Board of Education, Davis represents parts of Dallas and Tarrant counties.
Dwight D. Watson, Ph.D
Dwight David Watson received his MA from Texas Southern University and my PhD from the University of Houston. He is an Associate Professor of History and Assistant to the Provost at Texas State University. He specializes in African American and Texas history. His research interests include southern and urban history, the civil rights movement, race and law, and church state relationship. He is currently working on When Hell Came To Houston: African Americans in Houston 1917.
Watson has also won a National Endowment for the Humanities research for his work on the Houston Police, a Research Enhancement Grant.
Emilio Zamora, Ph.D.
Emilio Zamora is a Full Professor and the Clyde Rabb Littlefield Chair in Texas History at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes and teaches on the history of Mexicans in the United States, Texas history and oral history.
Zamora has prepared or collaborated in the production of eleven books and has received seven book awards, a best-article prize, a Fulbright García-Robles fellowship with a one-year residency at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and an additional twelve scholarly and thirteen professional service awards.
His latest recognitions include the 2017 Scholar of the Year Award from the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), the 2017 NACCS Tejas Foco Premio Estrella de Aztlán Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 Ruth A. Allen Pioneer in Texas Working Class History Award from the Texas Center for Working-Class Studies, Collin College, and the 2021 Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award from the Organization of American Historians.