Jane Borochoff
Borochoff is the founder and executive director of Educational Programs Inspiring Communities, a 15-year-old Houston-based nonprofit that serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. An energetic community volunteer and exceptional social connector, Jane is a graduate of the American Leadership Forum, Leadership Houston and the Center for Houston's Future. She is also a past chair and past president of the Texas Lyceum. A native of Brenham — where, she says, she ate Blue Bell Ice Cream nearly every day in school — she's an alumna of the University of Texas at Austin.
Glenn Brown
Brown has worked at the intersection of media, technology, and audience in a variety of companies and nonprofits: Creative Commons (CEO, Board of Directors), Google (Product Counsel), YouTube (Product Counsel, Head of U.S. Music Partnerships), Twitter (co-founder of Twitter Amplify video partnerships / product), betaworks (EIR), and, most recently, the Obama Foundation (Chief Digital Officer). He is a senior advisor at MIT’s Center for Constructive Communication and worked as a student, affiliate, and later a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Glenn grew up in Austin.
Trei Brundrett
Brundrett is the co-founder and former chief operating officer for Vox Media. He was instrumental in growing the company from a collection of sports blogs to a portfolio of over 10 trusted publications covering everything from technology, to culture, to politics, and restaurants. A veteran technology leader of several startups, Brundrett also led large-scale internet strategy, advertising and development projects for Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, advocacy groups and media clients. Trei is a seventh generation Texan who grew up helping to raise Beefmaster cattle in Kenedy, Texas and has lived in every major city in the state except for El Paso.
John Chao
Chao is an independent investor who most recently served as the chief operating officer of New York Public Radio. Previously, he was a partner in the strategy and corporate finance practice at McKinsey & Company, where he advised energy and commodity companies. A native of Houston, John has a degree in chemical engineering from Rice University and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Antonio Garza
Garza, is counsel in the Mexico City office of White & Case, an international law firm. Mr. Garza acts as a strategic counselor to CEOs, investors and entrepreneurs and is a Director to a number publicly traded and privately held companies. Garza previously served as the US Ambassador to Mexico; was an elected member and chairman of the state’s energy regulating body, the Texas Railroad Commission; and was Texas' 99th Secretary of State. The Ambassador got his start in politics in the late 1980s as Cameron County judge — the youngest person ever to hold that post, and the first Republican since reconstruction to be elected to a countywide office in South Texas. A Brownsville native, he has an undergraduate degree from UT-Austin and a law degree from Southern Methodist University where he is currently a member of the University's Board of Trustees.
Larry Irving
Irving is the president and CEO of the Irving Group, a consulting firm providing strategic advice and assistance to international telecommunications and information technology companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations. He previously served as vice president for global government affairs for the Hewlett-Packard Company. In the Clinton Administration, he spent almost seven years as assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information and as administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. A native of Queens, New York, he has a undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and a law degree from Stanford University. In 2021, he was elected chair of the board of PBS.
Elena M. Marks
Elena M. Marks is a Senior Fellow in Health at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Her work centers on improving health outcomes for all Texans, with an emphasis on people with low incomes and members of marginalized groups. Her areas of health policy expertise include health systems, health and health care finance, access to health care, health disparities, and the nonmedical drivers of health. She is the founder of the Texas Consortium for the Non-Medical Drivers of Health. From 2014 – 2022, Ms. Marks served as the Founding President and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation, a $1.3 billion philanthropy dedicated to improving health equity Texas. Under her leadership, the foundation awarded over $400 million to nonprofits and governmental entities working to improve health outcomes.
Ms. Marks’ previous professional experiences include serving as the Director of Health and Environmental Policy for the City of Houston; consulting in the healthcare industry with large systems and community-based providers; starting and directing a successful legal placement firm; and practicing trial and appellate law with major law firms.
Ms. Marks holds a bachelor’s degree from Emory University, a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health.
Tracy LaQuey Parker
LaQuey Parker is Senior VP of Business Development for Parker Solutions Group and community volunteer who sits on the Advisory Council for the College of Natural Sciences and the UTeach Advisory Council at the University of Texas at Austin. She is Treasurer of the UT Foundation and board Chair for the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities. Parker previously worked as founding director of the UTeach Institute at UT and in the chief technology office of Cisco Systems, where she founded the company’s Worldwide Education focus and its Advanced Internet Initiatives Team. Born in Newfoundland, Canada, Parker has an undergraduate degree in computer science from UT.
Sonya Medina Williams
Medina Williams is an international thought leader on diversity, social impact and sustainability who has spent her career mobilizing and empowering women and minorities as catalysts for change. She travels globally to speak about leadership, corporate governance and responsibility and advancing women’s political, social and economic participation. For seven years, she served in the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Projects to the First Lady. A trusted White House advisor, she developed policies in the areas of education, global health and the empowerment of women. A leading advocate for including more women and minorities on corporate boards and in high level positions within corporate and government realms, Medina Williams founded the Latina Leadership Institute. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University and received a Master of Public Health at Columbia University.
Steve Sachs
Sachs is Managing Director, US at Guardian News and Media, leading the Guardian’s US business. He was previously CEO of OneSpot, a marketing technology company that delivers individualization across digital channels, and is used by leading global marketers. Prior to that, Sachs was EVP, Consumer Marketing and Sales at the Time Inc. division of Time Warner. Sachs has advised nonprofit news organizations, co-founded Recode the Quo as an organization that works with tech startups to build diverse, inclusive, and equitable companies, and is a mentor at TechStars and Capital Factory. He was a founding board member of Texture (sold to Apple).
Jim Schachter
Schachter is president and chief executive officer of New Hampshire Public Radio, the state’s leading news organization and producer of acclaimed podcasts including Outside/In, Civics 101 and Bear Brook. He previously was vice president for news at WNYC, where his staff won Peabody, DuPont, Murrow and Polk awards. He spent nearly 17 years at The New York Times, rising to the position of associate managing editor. He has been a reporter or editor at the Los Angeles Times, The Kansas City Star and the Jacksonville (Fla.) Journal. A native of Glendale, Calif., Schachter has an undergraduate degree from Columbia University.
Matt Thompson
Thompson has been the editor-in-chief of the Center for Investigative Reporting since February. He previously served as the executive editor and deputy editor at The Atlantic, as the director of vertical initiatives for NPR, and as an editor and reporter at news organizations around the country, including the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Fresno Bee. He's a former member of the board at the Center for Public Integrity. A native of Florida, Matt is a graduate of Harvard University.
Frank P. Ward III
Frank Ward is a Texas-based public affairs consultant and well-respected strategist with 20 years of combined experience in government, politics, and business. Frank's professional life has taken him from the RNC to The White House, Capitol Hill to the Export-Import Bank, the Texas Capitol to Public Strategies, Inc./H+K Strategies to The Mach 1 Group. After a 2018 run for Austin City Council, Frank founded his own consultancy, Forward Public Affairs. Before becoming a Founding Partner of the Poplar Group, a strategic consulting and advisory firm, Frank served as the Interim Executive Director of Communications and Director of Media Relations for the Texas Education Agency. Frank is a member of the Austin PBS Board of Directors, and an active Director of The Texas Lyceum. A member of the JoyRx Austin Leadership Council, Frank has helped raise significant funds for the mission delivery of the Children’s Cancer Association. Frank graduated from Denison University with a B.A. in English, and The Johns Hopkins University with a M.A. in Government. Frank, and his wife, Marion, are the proud parents of three fine Texans.