Events

Harriet Wasserstrum is Chair of Ranked Choice Voting for Texas, an organization she co-founded in 2019 to advocate for the adoption of this nonpartisan change in voting logistics.

Harriet spent 27 years in banking holding a variety of analytical, relationship management, and operations roles, and ending as Vice Chair, Texas Region, JPMorgan Chase Bank. After retiring from banking, Harriet spent 11 years as President of the Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Leadership Forum (ALF), a national network dedicated to building stronger communities by joining and strengthening diverse leaders.

Since retiring in 2014, Harriet’s major pro bono activities include starting an ALF Criminal Justice Fellows Program in collaboration with Leadership Memphis in that city and serving as Chair of ALF-National. Harriet has a B.A. in sociology from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Inivted by David Redford

harriet.wasserstrum@rcvfortexas.org

832.524.6714

 UoH Student Chapter to talk about Nicaragua project.  Invited by Lucy.  Further details forthcoming  

Kate's Presentation:  The Story Behind the Story: How a neighborhood fire forged a bond between West University and Southside Place 

Kate McCormick has been a resident of Southside Place for 26 years. She is the author of two books on the city: a pictorial history entitled Images of America: Southside Place co-authored with Kris Holt and published by Arcadia Publishing; and a children's picture book, Happy: The True Story of a Stray Dog Who Became a Hero published by TCU Press and named a finalist for the 2019 Joan Lowery Nixon Award. 

Most recently, Kate researched and wrote a successful Texas Historical Marker nomination for Southside's Fire Truck Park which is anticipated to be dedicated in 2023.

Kate is a Board Certified labor and employment lawyer in private practice and has been a Municipal Court Judge for the City of Southside Place for over 20 years. She has been on the board of Preservation Houston since 2011, and is its immediate past president.

Kate is the curator of StoryWalk Houston, a page-by-page presentation of a children's picture book along an outdoor path that promotes early literacy,  physical activity and family time together outside. Pop-up StoryWalks have been installed in various parks in West U and in the Southside Place Community Garden as a community service. 

Invited by Kathy Kokas

mccormick.kt@att.net

Raj Salhotra is a native Houstonian. He attended Rice University and graduated in 2013 with majors in Economics and Policy Studies. After Rice, he joined Teach For America and was placed at YES Prep Southwest where he taught Pre-Calculus and AP Statistics.  After YES Prep, he attended Harvard Law School where he focused on researching public policy issues and representing tenants being evicted from their homes. After returning to Houston in 2018, Raj deferred a job with Baker Botts to run for Houston City Council At-Large 1. He secured a spot in the runoff; however, ultimately lost to an incumbent. Now, Raj has launched Momentum Education to serve under-resourced high school and college students get to and through college and into the workforce.

Invited by Lisa Bunse

Bio information forthcoming.  

Invited by David Redford.  

Bio forthcoming. 

Invited by Sharon Williams 

markdsolano@gmail.com

NOTE:  A copy of the presentation is in the email folder.  

Ann Svendsen-Sanchez MS, is a fulltime faculty member at the University of Houston. Her area of emphasis is in the field of commercial food production, community nutrition, general nutrition. She has been involved in research on nutrition education in foodbanks.  She has developed school-based gardens, food bank community garden and UH kitchen garden for commercial use.  Svendsen-Sanchez has been published in 2 peer-reviewed journal articles and 4 book chapters. She teaches undergraduate nutrition courses and volunteers doing nutrition education to homeless organization participants.  Svendsen-Sanchez has developed school nutrition education programs for ages pre K to high school for the 4^th largest school district in the US.  She developed nutrition education programs for low-income populations in Houston. 

Ann Svendsen-Sanchez received her masters from Texas Woman’s University, Denton Texas. Her research during her Master’s was on Nutritional Indices Predicting Mortality in Head and Neck Cancer Patients.

Ann Svendsen-Sanchez has received funding as Director of Nutrition of Programs from national and local donors to educate low-income clients served by Houston Food Bank providing outreach activities.

She received grants thru the Houston Food Bank to provide Serve Safe certification for incarcerated felons learning food service skills at the food bank community kitchen. 

Ann Svendsen-Sanchez mentors undergraduate in unpaid internships for non-profits and homeless shelters providing nutrition education.  Her undergraduate students obtain dietetic internships to become Registered Dietitians/Nutritionist. 

Invited by Lisa Bunse to talk about all your work as a nutritionist for HISD, head of food services for Texas City ISD, leadership at the Houston Food Bank, and professorship at UH.