Project Summary

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With the question, "What did you do for Houston today?" we will engage our community in a new dialogue. We'll stimulate conversations over water coolers and dinner tables, and use technology so ideas can be vetted, plans developed and implemented, and successes promoted and celebrated.

About me

I'm a 36-year old single mother of a three-year old son for whom I hope I can help build an even better and brighter Houston than the one where I grew up. I'm a product of Houston's public schools, and a two-time graduate of the University of Houston. I'm a native Houstonian who began a public service career as a part-time aide to a councilman while still in high school at the age of 17. I've worked in various capacities for six different elected officials (three council members and three mayors), and currently work on public safety/homeland security issues. Though I've served on boards of individual nonprofits, I find I struggle with a desire to have a broader impact. I've attempted to satisfy this through capacity-building efforts like teaching program evaluation. This feeling, this bigger picture approach, is one that I share with many of my closest friends. Collectively, we comprise the inner circle for the Engage-Houston project. We're a diverse lot for sure, as colorful as the city itself: single and married; with and without children; straight, gay and lesbian; student and graduates; working for industry, government and nonprofits. We spend hours together - usually over lunch - pondering, for example, the fate of the homeless when an urban camping ban is proposed, knowing that the ratio of shelter beds to those in need leaves the overwhelming majority with no where to go. We know that when others join this conversation, we'll make a dramatic difference.