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Board Biographies
JOSEPH R. KRIER (Chair) Joseph R. Krier, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, has advanced the humanities through many civic and educational activities. As founding president of the Foundation for the National Archives, he played a critical role in shaping that agency’s identity as a leading cultural institution. As a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from 1994 to 1999, he formulated strategies for the expansion of the state’s colleges and universities. He has chaired the Arts Council of San Antonio, served on the San Antonio Fiesta Board of Directors, and participated in the Library and Literacy Campaign. He has been a member of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Board of Visitors. A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and the U.T. School of Law, he has served the university in numerous capacities, including the recent Commission of 125. He is married to former state Senator Cyndi Taylor Krier.
JULIUS GLICKMAN (vice chair) Julius Glickman is a Houston civic leader and the managing partner of the law firm Glickman & Hughes, L.L.P. A native of Big Spring, he earned both his B.A. and L.L.B at The University of Texas at Austin, where he was elected student body president and was chair of the Development Board in 2004–2005. He serves as chair-elect of the Chancellor's Council of The University of Texas system. A frequent lecturer at law schools and professional associations, he has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Houston. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Houston Symphony, as well as president and chair of the Houston Public Television board of directors. In 2004, he received the Leon Jaworkski Award for outstanding community service presented by the Houston Bar Auxiliary. He and his wife, Suzan, have two grown children and three grandchildren.
BETTYE NOWLIN (secretary) A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Education, Bettye Holt Nowlin serves on the boards for KLRU (Austin PBS) and Greenlights for NonProfit Success. She is former president of the Austin Community Foundation Board of Governors and current president of the Austin Museum of Art Board of Trustees. She is also involved with the Austin Parks Foundation and served as Green Gala chair and co-chair in 1999 and 1998. She has also worked extensively with the Capital Soccer Club (now the Austin United Capitals Soccer Club), Greater Austin Soccer Coalition, and the Commission of 125 at The University of Texas at Austin.
JANIE STRAUSS MCGARR (Treasurer) Janie Strauss McGarr is an active community volunteer in Dallas. She is a current chair-elect of the board of Planned Parenthood of North Texas. She previously served as chair for the Board of Trustees of The Hockaday School, the Girls Adventure Trails, the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, the Dallas County Juvenile Board Advisory Committee, the Sweetheart Ball benefiting UT Southwestern Medical Center, and the Great Adventure Hunt for Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, and she has served as co-chair for numerous other organizations and events. In 1996, she was the recipient of the Dallas chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives Outstanding Volunteer Award. She received a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law. From 1978 to 1982, she worked as an attorney at Jackson, Walker, Winstead, Cantwell & Miller. She and her husband Cappy McGarr have two daughters.
GARY M. BELL Dr. Gary M. Bell serves as dean of the Honors College at Texas Tech University in Lubbock where he has taught British history and introductory humanities courses since 1993. Under his administration of the university humanities program, two humanities-based degree programs were added to the campus curriculum: a B.S. in natural history and the humanities, and a classical liberal arts degree.
LESLIE D. BLANTON A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and Rice University, Leslie Dyess Blanton serves on the advisory councils of the Children’s Museum of Houston, Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., and the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin as well as the boards of The Park People, Inc., Young Audiences of Houston, the Center for Reform of School Systems, the Harris County Hospital District Foundation and the regional board of Teach For America. She is scholarship vice president of Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association of Greater Houston, a Texas Cultural Trust member, and an active participant on committees at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
ALBERT S. BROUSSARD Albert S. Broussard is a professor of history at Texas A&M University, where he specializes in Afro-American history and has received several university awards for distinguished teaching. He is author of Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900–1954; American History: The Early Years to 1877; and African-American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853–1963, and is a co-author of The American Republic to 1877 and The American Vision. A former president of the Oral History Association, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Duke University.
MACEO C. DAILEY JR. Dr. Maceo C. Dailey Jr. is associate professor of history and director of African American Studies at The University of Texas at El Paso. In addition to serving two terms as chair of the Humanities Texas board of directors, he served on the advisory committee for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum and the boards of the Texas Emancipation Juneteenth Cultural and Historical Commission and the Twelve Travelers Memorial of the Southwest. He currently chairs the board of directors of both the McCall Neighborhood Center and the Child Crisis Center of El Paso and serves on the boards of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and the Burnham Wood Charter School in El Paso. He recently submitted for review a manuscript on Emmett Jay Scott and is currently working on the "Booker T. Washington Encyclopedia." He coedited a revised edition of Bernice Love Wiggins’s Tuneful Tales with Ruthe Winegarten; with Kristine Navarro, he coedited Wheresoever My People Chance to Dwell: Oral Interviews with African American Women of El Paso.
VIRGINIA DUDLEY Virginia Dudley is a partner in Dudley Bros., Ltd., a purebred cattle operation in Comanche and Runnels counties, and she serves on the Health and Nutrition Committee of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. She is a director and past chair of Comanche’s Main Street advisory board, vice chair of the Friends of Historic Comanche, member and past secretary of the Comanche Economic Development Corporation, and a Master Gardener. A member of the Texas Cattlewomen, she serves on the Health and Nutrition Committee of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and is past president of the Texas Hereford Auxiliary and past secretary of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Auxiliary. She received a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University.
GEORGE M. FLEMING George Fleming is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin where he received his B.B.A. and J.D. He is managing partner of Fleming & Associates, L.L.P., a firm that specializes in plaintiff litigation. Before entering private practice, he served as an officer in the United States Army and spent five years as a trial attorney in the Torts Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He has been lead trial attorney in a number of landmark cases. His legal memberships include the State Bar of Texas, Houston Bar Association, Texas Trial Lawyers Association, American Bar Association, and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Sam Houston Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Chancellor’s Council of the University of Texas System, and the President’s Council of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. His awards and recognitions include a listing in Who’s Who in American Law and the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from The Tejas Club of The University of Texas at Austin.
JULIET V. GARCÍA Dr. Juliet V. García joined the University of Texas System as president of The University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) in 1992 after serving as president of Texas Southmost College (TSC) for six years. While at TSC, she was recognized as the first Mexican American woman in the nation to become president of a college or university. She was voted Outstanding Alumnus by The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Communications and Outstanding Young Texas Ex. Other awards she has received include recognition as a Woman of Distinction by the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders, the first-ever VIDA Award from NBC and Hispanic Magazine, the National Network of Hispanic Women Hall of Fame Education Award, and induction into Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. She is featured in multiple issues of Hispanic Business as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Ford Foundation, Campus Compact, JPMorgan Chase Rio Grande Valley, Public Welfare Foundation, and The John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation. She is vice chair of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and former chair of the Advisory Committee to Congress on Student Financial Assistance. She received her Ph.D. in communication and linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin and her M.A. and B.A. in speech and English from the University of Houston. She and her husband Oscar E. García have two grown children and four grandchildren.
MIGUEL GONZALEZ-GERTH Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth is a retired professor from The University of Texas at Austin’s Spanish and Portuguese department. He received a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, as well as his master’s degree in Spanish and English, and obtained a Ph.D. in romance languages and literature from Princeton University. He taught at Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, and Haverford College before returning to The University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor in 1965, where he was later promoted to associate professor, and then to professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature. He served in The University of Texas Faculty Senate (now the Faculty Council) as well as in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese as interim chairman and in the College of Liberal Arts as Associate Dean for the Humanities. The former editor of the Texas Quarterly, he is also a respected writer, translator, and poet.
MICHAEL L. KLEIN Michael L. Klein is engaged in independent oil and gas exploration and production in Midland. He graduated from The University of Texas in Austin with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering in 1958 and an LL.B. in 1963. While attending law school, he worked summers as a petroleum engineer with Continental Oil Company and later served as an attorney for that same company. He divides his time between Houston, Austin, Santa Fe, and Midland. He serves on the development board for The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Press Advisory Council. He also is a member of the Longhorn Foundation, the Site Santa Fe board of directors, and the board of trustees of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. He has previously served as a member on the board of trustees for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Chinati Foundation; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Cate School in Carpinteria, California; and as the chair of the board at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
ROBERT J. KRUCKEMEYER Robert J. Kruckemeyer is an attorney engaged in private practice in Houston, Texas. He concentrates on commercial litigation, including banking, real estate, and other business disputes. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Houston Bar Association. In addition, he is a lector at St. Ignatius Church and a coach for Klein Soccer Club. Active in Republican politics since college, he has served Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney as a senior advance representative in their travels in the United States and abroad. In 1997 Governor Bush appointed him to the State of Texas Polygraph Examiners Board where he served until 2004. He has also served as a fundraiser for the Friends of the Barbara Bush Library at Cypress Creek and is interested in promoting Texans’ knowledge of history. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in political science from St. Louis University in 1981 and cum laude with a juris doctor from the St. Louis University School of Law in 1984. He married Peggy Fennewald in 1985, and they have three boys—Jonathan (1986), Joseph (1991), and Michael (1991).
WILLIAM S. LIVINGSTON Political scientist William S. Livingston serves as senior vice president at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been a faculty member since 1949. He served as vice president and dean of Graduate Studies from 1979 to 1995, acting president of the University for the period from September 1992 through January 1993, and in 1982 was named to the Jo Anne Christian Professorship in British Studies. His previous leadership roles also include serving as president of the Southern Political Science Association and the Southwestern Social Science Association, member of the Council of the American Political Science Association, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Politics. He has written and edited six books and more than twenty-five articles on federalism, democracy, and education and has been presented with several distinguished awards, including the Ex-Students Association’s “Distinguished Service Award,” the highest award bestowed on a non-alumnus. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1943 from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. degree from Yale University in 1950. During the Second World War, he was a field artillery officer in Europe and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service.
NANCY CAIN MARCUS Nancy Cain Marcus currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Humanities Texas (formerly the Texas Council for the Humanities), Westwood Trust (NYSE), the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, The Trinity Trust, and the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations. She has served as a trustee of both The University of Dallas (Executive Committee) and also of The Hockaday School, as well as a trustee on the Executive Board of Southern Methodist University Libraries. She is both a life trustee and a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. In 1999, Marcus received a gubernatorial appointment to serve on the State of Texas Commission on 21st Century Colleges and Universities, and she also served on the Boards of Visitors at both Duke University and Columbia University. She is a member of Charter 100 and is a longtime member of the advisory boards of the Dallas Women’s Foundation and the World Affairs Council. In 2001, she received a presidential appointment to serve as a United States Public Delegate to the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly for a one-year post that began on September 10, the eve of the national tragedy. She holds a Ph.D. in literature from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, where she serves as an adjunct assistant professor of literature.
ADAIR MARGO A fourth-generation El Pasoan, Adair Margo received a B.A. in art history at Vanderbilt University, studied Renaissance art history and Italian studies at Syracuse University, and received an M.A. degree in art history from New Mexico State University. She opened a contemporary art gallery in 1985 that she continues to own and operate. She is currently the chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and on the board of the Mid-America Arts Alliance. She has served as chairman of the Texas Commission on the Arts and on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. In 1995 she recorded the oral history of Texas author and painter Tom Lea, which became a book released by Texas Western Press. She has taught at both The University of Texas at El Paso and New Mexico State University and has received numerous recognitions, including the League of Women Voters’ Bravo Award and induction into the El Paso Commission for Women Hall of Fame. She is deeply involved in health, micro-enterprise, and cultural issues along the U.S./Mexico Border and is the founding president of the FEMAP Foundation (Mexican Federation of Private Health and Community Development Associations).
THOMAS R. MITCHELL Dr. Thomas R. Mitchell of Laredo, professor of English at Texas A&M International University, currently serves as the Faculty Senate president and teaches a wide-range of American and British literature courses. He serves on the board of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society and is a past board member of the Margaret Fuller Society. He has published scholarly articles on Hawthorne, Melville, Fuller, Keats, and Browning and from 2002 to 2004 reviewed the year's work in Hawthorne studies for American Literary Scholarship. His book Hawthorne’s Fuller Mystery was nominated in 1998 for the American Studies Association’s John Hope Franklin Publication Prize and for the 1999 Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book.
KIT T. MONCRIEF Kit T. Moncrief is a philanthropist whose leadership roles in Fort Worth reflect her many and varied interests, which include ranching, art, wildlife conservation, and travel. She is president of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, vice president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Foundation, co-chair of the Fort Worth Zoological Association, and a member of the executive committee of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Association and co-chair of its $30 million endowment campaign. She also serves as a board member of the Texas Ballet Theater, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Outside of Fort Worth, she is co-chair of the advisory board (the Museum Council) for the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin, as well as co-chair of the museum’s $75 million capital campaign, and she has served on the executive committee of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She studied art history at Southern Methodist University and participated in Texas Christian University’s Ranch Management Program. Her husband, Charles B. Moncrief, is an independent oil and gas producer and rancher, and they have three daughters.
TESSA MARTINEZ POLLACK Dr. Tessa Martinez Pollack is the seventh president and the first Hispanic to hold the presidency of Our Lady of the Lake University. Prior to her appointment as president of Our Lady of the Lake University, she served thirteen years as president of two of the most-modeled community college institutions in the nation, the Medical Center Campus of Miami-Dade Community College in Miami, Florida, and Glendale Community College in Arizona. A native of San Antonio, she graduated from Our Lady of the Lake High School, received an associate arts degree from San Antonio College, and an M.A. in education and business from The University of Texas in San Antonio. She also earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and a doctorate in educational administration from The University of Texas at Austin. She has been widely published and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Sunrise Award (2003), the MANA (2003) Award, and the Arizona Woman Award (2001). Hispanic Business Magazine has named her among the “100 Influentials” in America.
CATHERINE L. ROBB Catherine L. Robb is an attorney with the firm of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold L.L.P., representing clients in the broadcast industry. In 1998, she earned her J.D. with honors from The University of Texas at Austin School of Law. She received her B.A. in 1992 from the University of Virginia. She serves as a board member of KLRU, The Austin Film Society, The American Heart Association (Capital Area Division), the Austin Music Foundation, and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. In addition to serving on the advisory board of the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, she is an active member of Leadership Austin and the Seton Forum. She chairs the LBJ Library’s Future Forum, which she founded, and is a director of the Austin Council of Foreign Affairs. She also volunteers for several nonprofit community organizations, including Shoes For Austin, Reading is Fundamental of Austin, and Volunteer Legal Services.
RICARDO ROMO Ricardo Romo became the fifth president of The University of Texas at San Antonio in May 1999. He graduated from Fox Technical High School and is a native of San Antonio’s West Side. He attended The University of Texas at Austin on a track scholarship and holds a master’s degree in history from Loyola Marymount University and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. In 1980, he returned to The University of Texas at Austin to teach history before becoming a vice provost for undergraduate education. From 1987 to 1993, he directed the Texas office of the Tomás Rivera Center, housed at Trinity University, where he evaluated the impact of governmental policies on Latinos. In 2002, President Bush appointed him to the President’s Board of Advisers on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He has also been appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank Board of Directors and to the Board of Commissioners to UNESCO. A nationally respected urban historian, he is the author of East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio, which is now in its ninth printing. His photographs have been the subject of several regional art exhibits, including “Havana,” a collection of images taken in Cuba. He is married to Dr. Harriett Romo, an associate professor in social and policy sciences at UTSA. They have one son, Carlos, and a daughter, Anadelia.
LINDA A. VALDEZ From 1981 to 2002, Linda Valdez was CEO/owner of Regnier, Valdez and Associates, a marketing, advertising, and public relations firm in San Antonio. She also held the position of assistant executive director of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau. She has received numerous industry awards such as the Association of Women in Communications Headliners Award; the Small Business Person of the Year for Texas award from the U.S. Small Business Administration; and the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame in Communications Award. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women and the International Directory of Distinguished Leadership. Her professional affiliations include the San Antonio Sports Foundation, the Tourism Development Council for Rockport/Fulton, Texas Travel Industry Association, and the National Federation of Independent Business Owners (Texas Leadership Council). She serves as president of the Rockport Racquet and Yacht Club Condo Association and on the board of the Texas Maritime Museum. Her personal accomplishments include appointments by (ex-Governor) George W. Bush to the Texas Historical Commission and by Speaker Tom Craddick to the Texas-wide “Shared Vision Panel,” a group of twenty-nine business, physician, and community leaders who are developing a three- to five-year plan which will redefine health care in Texas. A marketing and management consultant and an alternative board facilitator with business owners in San Antonio, she received a B.S. in business administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a graduate degree and life certification in secondary education from the University of California at Berkeley.
ABRAHAM VERGHESE Abraham Verghese is the director of The Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and he is Marvin Forland Distinguished Professor of Medicine. A graduate of Madras University, Dr. Verghese trained as a resident and chief resident in internal medicine at East Tennessee State University and as a fellow in infectious diseases at Boston University. He has served on the faculty at East Tennessee State University, The University of Iowa, and Texas Tech University. From 1991 to 2002, he was a professor medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, where he was Grover E. Murray Distinguished Professor. He is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, and infectious diseases. From 1990 to 1991, Dr. Verghese attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at The University of Iowa, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree. His first book, My Own Country, about AIDS in rural Tennessee, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for 1994 and was made into a movie. His second book, The Tennis Partner, was a New York Times notable book and a national bestseller. He has been the commencement speaker at many medical schools and has an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Swarthmore College. He has published extensively in medical literature, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.
MARY L. VOLCANSEK Former dean of Texas Christian University's AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mary L. Volcansek is a professor of political science who came from Florida International University in Miami in 2000. While at Florida International University, she served as department chair, associate dean of arts and sciences, and acting assistant vice president for academic affairs. She has written, edited, or coauthored nine books on aspects of law, courts, and politics in the U.S. and in Europe, including Constitutional Politics in Italy: The Constitutional Court (2000). Her most recent article appeared in the European Journal of Political Science in June 2001. With John F. Stack Jr., she coedited Courts crossing Borders: Blurring the Lines of Sovereignty (2005). She is currently working on the role of judiciaries in the consolidation of democracy.
GEORGE C. WRIGHT George C. Wright is the president of Prairie View A&M University. Prior to his present position, he served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at The University of Texas at Arlington. He received his bachelors and masters degrees in history from the University of Kentucky and his doctorate in history from Duke University. He has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards, including the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence at The University of Texas at Austin, and he is the author of three books and codirector of two documentaries for television. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the City of Arlington Chamber Foundations and the Medical Center of Arlington, as well as serving on the board for the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board, the Editorial Board for the Southern Biography Series at Louisiana State University, the Board of Editors of the Journal of Southern History, the Summerlee Commission on Texas History, and the Southern Historical Association Program Committee.