Chrys Dougherty, IV, Ph.D.
AVEY Board Chair/Chair-Data Committee
Chrys serves as a Principal Researcher for the Texas High Education Coordinating Board. Prior to working at THEC, he was a Senior Research Scientist at ACT, Inc./The National Center for Educational Achievement. His recent writing has addressed the importance of early learning, the challenge of catching up students who are far behind, the consistency of districts’ value-added measures across subjects and grade levels, and how school districts can support educators’ use of data. After teaching science in an elementary school in Oakland, California, Dr. Dougherty received his Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He taught statistics, economics, econometrics, and education policy courses at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and authored, Asking the Right Questions about Schools: a Parents’ Guide. Before joining Austin Voices, Chrys served for many years on the board of The Austin Project.
Beverly Harris
AVEY Board Vice-Chair
Beverly Harris is the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Product at Texas Mutual Insurance Company. She has nearly two decades of experience analyzing and influencing operations, developing budgets and business plans, and recommending adjustments to ensure success. Beverly harnesses the power of research and data to develop strategy and uses storytelling to foster organizational buy-in of strategic plans. She is passionate about innovation and strategic thinking and helping leaders prepare for known and unknown challenges of the future. Beverly is also passionate about supporting leaders in growing to become the best version of themselves.
Zach Price
AVEY Board Secretary
Zach Price is a Communications Professional with Red Fan Communications. Zach is a graduate of Anderson High School in AISD and UT-Austin in 2022, and ran for school board in 2018, narrowing losing a hard-fought race, but receiving strong endorsements from many education groups along the way. At UT, was tireless in his work to increase voting across Texas among college students.
Ara Merjanian
AVEY Prior Board Chair
Ara is the Principal and CEO at AM Associates. Ara has served for 20 years in various senior positions with institutions of higher education and Texas State legislative and executive branch agencies, including Blueprint Director for the E3 Alliance at Austin Community College and Director for Planning and Development and Workforce Education and School-to-Careers Policy Advisor in the Governor’s Office of Budget and Planning. In addition to Austin Voices, he serves on several non-profit boards and advisory committees, including the CAN Community Council, and was named a “Best Practices Partner” by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business Administration, and he is a Certified Facilitator.
Linda Battles
Linda Battles is the Regional Vice-President and Chancellor of Western Governors University Texas. She leads university operations across a five-state region and guides the strategic direction of the online, nonprofit university’s Texas-based affiliate. She brings more than 28 years of experience in higher education strategic planning, policy development, and stakeholder engagement. Before joining WGU, she worked at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas House of Representatives, where she dedicated her career to working on statewide policy that expands access to higher education, improves student success, and increases funding for state financial aid programs.
Linda Battles earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin and is a doctoral student in UT Austin’s Executive Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership Program. In 2017, the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce recognized her as a Woman of Distinction. She is from El Paso, Texas and lives in Pflugerville with her husband, Mike.
Beverly Harris
Beverly Harris is the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Product at Texas Mutual Insurance Company. She has nearly two decades of experience analyzing and influencing operations, developing budgets and business plans, and recommending adjustments to ensure success. Beverly harnesses the power of research and data to develop strategy and uses storytelling to foster organizational buy-in of strategic plans. She is passionate about innovation and strategic thinking and helping leaders prepare for known and unknown challenges of the future. Beverly is also passionate about supporting leaders in growing to become the best version of themselves.
Emily Hersh
Emily Hersh is a librarian at Navarro Early College High School, and a long-time Austin Voices volunteer and community schools advocate. Full bio coming.
Philip Tryon
Philip Tryon is the Associate Director of Community Engagement for Year Up-Austin. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Philip coordinated, as an undergraduate, a youth leadership program at Eastside Memorial High School in partnership with Austin Voices. After graduation, he worked as a legislative coordinator for AVEY during the 2015 Texas Legislative Session, and helped community school language become part of the education omnibus bill. Philip’s work for underserved youth has been recognized by Global Citizen.
Tamey Williams-Hill
Maryann Overath
AVEY Board Chair (Emeritus)
Maryann Overath is a marketing and media attorney with Dell Inc., where she also administers Dell’s pro bono health law project, a collaborative program with Disability Rights Texas. Previously, she worked with a number of non-profit legal organizations, including the Southern Disability Law Center, Advocacy, Inc., Texas Legal Services Center and the Texas Civil Rights Project. Maryann’s civil rights practice has focused on the provision of legal services to children with disabilities and chronic health conditions in the areas of health and education.
Susan Moffat
AVEY Board Vice-Chair (Emeritus)
A former journalist and legislative researcher, Susan Moffat is longtime community activist focusing primarily on issues related to education, equity and the local economy. She is the current Education Chair of Liveable City, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, and is a founding member of Save Texas Schools. As a strong proponent of the arts, Moffat led the effort to designate arts education as a key element of AISD’s Strategic Plan, served on the steering committee of the Kennedy Center’s Any Given Child initiative for Austin and currently chairs the Austin Creative Classroom Fund. A graduate of Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, she is married to Nick Barbaro, founder and publisher of the Austin Chronicle and co-founder of SXSW; they are the parents of an AISD graduate.
AVEY Community School Steering Committee
The following have served on Austin Voices “Campaign for the Future” Community School Steering Committee, aimed at scaling community schools across Title 1 schools in Austin ISD over a ten-year period:
David Balch (Civic Interest)
Dinorah Bores (Principal/Walnut Creek Elementary School)
Greg Casar (U.S. Representative/Former Austin City Council Member)
Katie Casstevens (Community Schools/Austin ISD)
Manuela Cisneros (Parent Activist and Volunteer/Navarro Early College High School)
Nora Comstock* (Past President and CEO/Las Comadres Para Las Americas)
Mona Gonzalez (ED/River City Youth Foundation)
Suchitra Gururaj (Asst. Vice President for Community Engagement at UT Austin)
Gina Hinojosa (Texas State Representative)
Patrick Patterson (Asst. Vice President, Longhorn Center for School Partnerships at UT-Austin)
Eddie Rodriguez (FormerTexas State Representative)
Arati Singh* (Austin ISD School Board President)
Ann Teich (former Austin ISD trustee)
Jeff Travillion* (Travis County Commissioner)
Thelma Williams (Grandma Wisdom/Local St. John Historian, Poet and Community Activist)
Laura Yeager (Founder/Just Fund It TX)
Ken Zarifis (President/Education Austin)
*Tri-Chairs