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Humanities Texas welcomes our new board members! The Humanities Texas Board of Directors formulates policy, approves programs and projects, reviews grant applications, participates in fundraising, and promotes organizational activities. Directors are selected for knowledge of or involvement in the humanities and represent both the academic and public spheres.

In January, Deborah Chadwick, Austin Dickson, Sally Prater, Kathryn Vomero Santos, and Hilary Haglund Walker joined the Humanities Texas Board of Directors.

The Humanities Texas Board of Directors meets at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin in November 2022.
Deborah Chadwick

Deborah Chadwick considers herself an East Texan, having lived in Center for thirty-three years. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, attended high school overseas, and is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Before moving to Texas, she lived in New York City for seven years, working with an advertising company. After moving to Center, Chadwick worked as community relations director for the local hospital before going into retail in 1998. She owned her retail shops until June 2024. Chadwick has been the president of the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce since 2017. She is a long-term member of the Center Woman’s Reading Club and stays active volunteering at the library, in the school system, and anywhere she is needed.

Deborah Chadwick.

Austin Dickson

Austin Dickson is the chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. Originally from Waco, Dickson graduated from Texas Christian University and earned master’s degrees in religion from Emory University and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He also holds a master’s in public policy from Georgia Tech. In addition to his civic role, Dickson has been a university professor since 2007. He currently teaches nonprofit leadership in the Candler School of Theology at Emory as well as in the public administration department at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Dickson serves on the board of Philanthropy Southwest, an association of philanthropic organizations across seven states. He is also on the board of directors for the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, Texas Public Radio, and the KLRN Endowment Fund, which supports San Antonio's PBS station.

Austin Dickson.

Sally Prater

Sally Prater spent her last thirteen career years as the documents historian at the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) union headquarters overseeing the archives department. Representing over 25,000 American Airlines flight attendants, APFA is the largest flight attendant union in the U.S. Since the 1960s, the APFA archives preserved contracts, negotiations documents, lawsuits, NTSB investigations, and flight attendant memorabilia. In 2016, Prater initiated and coordinated a digitization project to preserve nearly one million document pages. In 2017–18, Prater worked with American Airlines corporate headquarters, the Federal Aviation Administration, Historic Fort Worth, and Gensler Contractors to provide input for the preservation of the 1950s stewardess college and lodge history as related to the new American Airlines corporate campus near Dallas-Fort Worth.

Sally Prater.

Kathryn Vomero Santos

Kathryn Vomero Santos is associate professor of English and affiliated faculty in women’s and gender studies, medieval and renaissance studies, and global Latinx studies at Trinity University, where she served as codirector of the Humanities Collective from 2020–2024. She is a cofounder of the Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva (BSC), a group of scholars, educators, artists, and activists who engage with Shakespeare in ways that reflect the lived realities of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. In addition to her role on the board of Humanities Texas, Santos currently serves on the editorial boards of Shakespeare Bulletin and ACMRS Press and on the board of directors for the Friends of Friendship Park.

Kathryn Vomero Santos.

Hilary Haglund Walker

Hilary Haglund Walker is the regional president of wealth management and trust at Southside Bank. She is a native of Lufkin and a graduate of Lufkin High School. She earned a bachelor of arts in English from The University of Texas at Austin and a doctor of jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law in Houston. Currently, Walker is a member of the Angelina College Board of Trustees, treasurer of the Angelina County Bar Association, treasurer of the Museum of East Texas Board, and she is a past president of the Junior League of Lufkin and the Lufkin Rotary Club. She is also a director of the Texas Lyceum, a group of statewide leaders with diverse opinions and expertise who focus on national and state issues.

Hilary Haglund Walker.