Team
Julia Grizzard, Executive Director and Founder
Julia Grizzard has worked for over fifteen years in education and policy. Most recently as the Executive Director of the Bexar County Education Coalition (BCEC), a coalition dedicated toward elevating the voices eighteen Bexar County area Independent School Districts.
Before founding BCEC, Julia served as the legislative director for Representative Diego Bernal while he was the vice-chair of the House Committee on Public Education. Julia coordinated Representative Bernal’s entire legislative agenda as well as researched, developed, and executed legislation pertaining to public education, higher education, tax reform, healthcare, immigration, and economic development. Additionally, Julia played a key role in developing a part of the comprehensive school finance legislation, House Bill 3, which systematically updated how public schools in Texas are funded. Julia also acted as a point of contact and resource to District 123’s educational institutions, state-wide education and policy advocacy organizations, and state agencies including the Texas Education Agency, Higher Education Coordinating Board, and Health and Human Services Commission.
Prior to her time at the state legislature, Julia spent a decade in curriculum development and implementation, teaching and training, and education management with The Princeton Review. While working for Princeton Review, she worked as a classroom teacher and private tutor, then managed High School Operations in Central Texas and, finally, joined the national content team as the National Director of College Readiness and Institutional Programs. In that final role she authored The Princeton Review’s College Handbook series and oversaw every product that Princeton Review carried to around fifty-thousand students every year in both High School and College Classrooms. Julia left The Princeton Review to take her skills and passion to ensure students have the resources, support, and opportunities necessary to go to and complete college into the public sector.
Julia grew up in San Antonio, attended Trinity University and Teachers College, Columbia for undergraduate and graduate studies respectively. In the rare event that she’s not reading the Texas education code or philosophizing about Texas education policy, she is spending time with her husband George and her sons Liam and Emerson.
Lauren Bradford Kulbeth, Director of Operations
Lauren started her career at the Texas House of Representatives working for Speaker Joe Straus after graduating from Texas Christian University. Lauren then moved back home to Midland, Texas to work for State Senator Kel Seliger She worked for Senator Seliger for the next decade. While working for Senator Seliger, she ran his Permian Basin District Offices as well as his re-election campaigns. Lauren enjoys continuing to serve as a local advocate for public schools.
Ginger Averitt, Consultant
Ginger Averitt offers clients expertise in legislative strategy and policy development gleaned from decades of experience with the legislative process. Having worked for and with both Republicans and Democrats, she has forged and maintains relationships that help her advocate for policy preferable to her clients.
In her more than 20 years at the Texas Capitol, Ginger has had the honor of working for some of the most well-respected leaders in the state. She began her career in the Texas House of Representatives as a messenger before rising the ranks to administrative assistant and later policy analyst in Speaker James E. “Pete” Laney’s office.
In 2003, she worked in the Senate Finance Committee under the leadership of Chairman Teel Bivins. Following his retirement in 2004, Senator Kel Seliger hired Ginger to serve as legislative director. In 2009, she was promoted to chief of staff where she remained until she left the Senate in 2018. Ginger has a wealth of knowledge of public policy issues, including public education, school finance, higher education, economic development, taxation and the state budget. She is highly respected by members and staff and viewed as a subject matter expert on education issues.
Dan Hubery, Consultant
Dan Huberty served on the Humble ISD School board for five years before winning the election that sent him to the Texas Capitol. In his last year as a Trustee, he served as the Board President and as the Vice President and Chairman of the Finance Committee the year prior to that.
During his six terms in the Texas House of Representatives, District 127, Huberty continuously served on the Committee on Public Education. He was elected Chairman of the committee during the 85th and 86th Legislative Sessions. In his role as Chairman, Huberty championed several important pieces of legislation relating to public education. The most important being HB 3 in the 86th Session, which implemented transformational reforms to public school finance in Texas by modernizing outdated formulas, increasing the state share of funding, putting more money into classrooms, energizing teacher pay and investing in programs. Also known as “The Texas Plan”, the legislation stemmed from a report created by the Commission on Public School Finance, which Huberty was appointed to after creating the entity with HB 21 in the 85th Session.
Anita Fernandez, Consultant
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. A Graduate of Southwestern University with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and a focus in Anthropology. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, M.A. She has lived and studied in D.F., Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Chiapas, México. Anita has professional experience in state and local government, nonprofit management, education and the arts. During her time in the Texas Legislature as Chief of Staff for a Texas State Representative she led the Capitol and District offices and various community and policy initiatives, in the areas of Public Education, Transportation, Urban Affairs, Healthcare and Immigration. She was a pivotal contributor to the development of community and public affairs during her time at the Museo Alameda, the first formal Smithsonian affiliate in the U.S. and the official Latino Museum of Texas. While working in public education, she developed and implemented college readiness curriculum for the K – 12 grade levels.
For 15 years, she has served as the volunteer Project Administrator for the National Hispanic Institute (NHI) at San Antonio’s Great Debate Team, an international leadership experience for high school students. Anita is a member of the Board of Managers for University Health, Community First Health Plans, Texas Women in Trades founding Board Member, the Advisory Board for the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Cultures, the Klebrg for Commissioner Advisory Council, as well as the Marianist Urban Students Program. Previously, she has served as the City Council District 1 Appointee for the San Antonio SA2020 Commission on Education as well as on the Board of Directors for the National Hispanic Institute and the San Antonio River Foundation.
In 2016 she was recognized as Southwestern University’s Distinguished Young Alumna. In 2018 she received the NHI’s Distinguished Alumna in Community Leadership Award and has been one of NHI’s Top 100 Emerging Latino Leaders. Most recently she has been recognized as part of the San Antonio Business Journal’s 2021 “40 under 40”.
Our Board
Dr. Charles Luke, Policy Consultant
Dr. Charles Luke has over 30 years of education and non-profit experience, serving as a teacher, principal, and superintendent in several Texas public school districts. He has also served as a board member, vice president, and chief strategy officer for Volunteers of America, Texas – a nonprofit organization working with people with substance use disorder and re-entry from prison.
Charles is the founder and Director of the Coalition for Education Funding – a school funding coalition of over 50 Texas independent school districts; the Director of the Coalition for Public Schools with 45 member organizations; the Co-Director of Pastors for Texas Children; and serves as a Policy Advisor for the North Texas Commission – an organization including over 200 public and private sector companies, municipalities, counties, and community colleges.
Dr. Luke earned his BS and M.Ed. from Texas Tech University and his doctorate in education from the University of North Texas. In addition to his advocacy work he also serves on the Faith-Based Advisory Board of the Child Welfare League of America, the Fort Worth Mayor’s Faith Advisory Cabinet, and on the advisory board for Helping Restore Ability in Arlington, Texas.
Olivia Travieso, Consultant
Born and raised on the Southeast Side of San Antonio, TX, Olivia is a graduate Southwestern University, with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Political Science. During this time, she lived and studied in Monterrey, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Porto Alegre, Brazil. She then received a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School at the University of Texas at Austin and completed the LBJ School Portfolio Program in Nonprofit Studies through the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.
Olivia is proud to be a Latina entrepreneur and co-owner in two majority Latina-owned firms based in her hometown of San Antonio, and to work with like-minded, community-driven partners locally and nationally.
For the past thirteen years, she has also advanced the firm's community engagement, capacity-building, and governance efforts. In 2020, she and her partners founded OCI Development, a real estate development company that extends their commitment to social impact into the housing industry, with an emphasis on providing high quality affordable housing throughout Texas.
For nearly twenty years, she has worked with hundreds of high school students in San Antonio through the National Hispanic Institute (NHI) at San Antonio, which provides rigorous learning experiences for high-achieving, high-ability youth who aspire to community and civic leadership roles now and in the future. She has also served as an Educational Director for several of NHI’s national leadership programs held at university campuses throughout the U.S. and Mexico, which engage thousands of students every year.
Olivia was a Founding Executive Board Member for the San Antonio Chapter of the New Leaders Council, and a member of the NLC-SA Advisory Board. She serves on the City of San Antonio’s Executive Committee for the Aspen Institute Latino & Society Program's inaugural City Learning and Action Lab, which aims to support small businesses and entrepreneurs within predominantly Latino communities across the U.S. Currently, she’s a board member for the Bexar County Education Coalition, which seeks to influence education policy at the state level and serves as the Mayoral appointee to the Port San Antonio Board of Directors.
Olivia was named to the San Antonio Business Journal's 2023 "40 Under 40," and selected to represent the City of San Antonio at the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders program. She was also among the esteemed honorees for the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 12th Annual Women's Leadership Awards, as the recipient of the Inspire: Woman Entrepreneur award, and she was recognized the by her alma mater Southwestern University with the 2023 Distinguished Professional Alumni award.
