Location: Santa Fe, NM
An Oscar-nominated screenwriter whose films include Cast Away and Apollo 13, fifth-generation Texan William Broyles has always blazed his own trail. Raised in Baytown, he studied writing under Larry McMurtry at Rice University in the 1960s. After earning a Masters from Oxford University, Broyles was drafted and served as a Marine Lieutenant in Viet Nam. In 1972, at age twenty-seven, Broyles became the founding editor of Texas Monthly. Under his guidance, the upstart publication won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in its first year. Later Broyles became the first combat veteran to return to the battlefields of Viet Nam, a journey that inspired his classic account of reconciliation, Brothers in Arms: A Journey from War to Peace. Broyles has donated his complete archive to The Wittliff, which contains over five hundred boxes.
Elizabeth Crook is a Texas writer, and author of six novels as well as various works of nonfiction. Crook is a recipient of the Texas Book Festival’s prestigious Texas Writer Award, the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Texas Institute of Letters, and, along with Richard Linklater, Sandy Duncan, Dennis Quaid and others, the 2024 Texas Medal of Arts from the Texas Cultural Trust.
Her first novel, The Raven’s Bride, was the 2006 Texas Reads: One Book One Texas selection. The Night Journal was awarded the 2007 Spur award for Best Long Novel of the West and the 2007 Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction. Monday, Monday was awarded the 2015 Jesse H. Jones award for fiction and named a 2014 Best Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews. The Which Way Tree was named by The Texas Center for The Book at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission as their 2024 Texas Great Read Adult Selection “to represent the state’s literary landscape” at the National Book Festival.
Caroline “Cina” Forgason has been a lifelong advocate for wildlife and habitat, deeply rooted in both ranching heritage and modern conservation. She grew up splitting time between Pennsylvania and South Texas. From a young age she has been deeply connected to nature—starting a one-member Audubon club at age 5, inspired by birdwatching and hunting with her grandparents. Over the years, Cina has played a pivotal role in Texas conservation, with a strong focus on the Laguna Madre and Rio Grande Valley habitats, and she has been actively involved in conservation and preservation efforts in San Antonio. She also produced the film, Rara Avis: John James Audubon and the Birds of America (2015). She has served as a board member of the Nature Conservancy in Texas, the Peregrine Fund, and Lewa USA Wildlife Conservation.
Location: Austin
Liliana is a media executive, entrepreneur, and former recording artist with experience across the U.S. and Latin America. She began her career as a member of Fandango, recording eight albums with EMI Capitol and achieving #1 hits on Billboard’s Spanish-language charts.
She later founded and exited a fashion company, launched a publishing business in San Diego in partnership with American Express, and held a leadership role at Viajo.com. At Univision, she anchored a daily newscast and hosted a pioneering Spanish-language radio talk show, with coverage spanning health, immigration, financial literacy, and political affairs.
Most recently, she led Univision Posible, producing and hosting multiple platforms focused on entrepreneurship and financial empowerment, including the Emmy Award–winning Contigo: Tu Futuro Financiero.
Liliana advises organizations on U.S. Hispanic market strategy and has served on numerous boards in the arts, education, and nonprofit sectors. Based in Austin, she currently serves on the boards of ZACH Theatre, The Kindness Campaign, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The Wittliff Collections, and the University of Texas International Board of Advisors.
Dan Goodgame served as editor in chief of Texas Monthly for six years, and continues to work there part-time as senior advisor. During his tenure, TM doubled its editorial staff and tripled its total audience: in print, on its website, and in books, podcasts, live events, two weekly TV shows, streaming series such as Landman, and Hollywood movies such as Hit Man. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and best-selling author, Goodgame worked for TIME magazine, including as Washington bureau chief, and for the Miami Herald, including as Middle East correspondent. He earned a B.A. at Ole Miss and a master's degree in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He and his wife Marcia live in San Antonio, where Dan has served on the boards of the local opera, medical-research foundation, and sports foundation, as well as the boards of the Texas Book Festival and Texas Public Radio.
Jim Hart lives in New York but is from Fort Worth and graduated from SMU.
He is the scriptwriter for "Hook", "Dracula", Treasure Island", and other successful movies. Hart has worked with Scorsese and Coppola and Spielberg on films and has a long career writing some of Hollywood's biggest adventure films.
Stephen Harrigan is the author of fourteen books of fiction and non-fiction, including the award-winning novels The Gates of the Alamo, which became a New York Times bestseller, Remember Ben Clayton, A Friend of Mr. Lincoln, and The Leopard is Loose.
Harrigan has been a writer for Texas Monthly since the magazine's founding in 1973 and his articles and essays have been collected in books such as The Eye of the Mammoth and the forthcoming An Anchor in the Sea of Time, both published by the University of Texas Press. His most recent book, published by Knopf in April 2025, is Sorrowful Mysteries: The Shepherd Children of Fatima and the Fate of the Twentieth Century.
A 1970 graduate of the University of Texas, Harrigan lives in Austin, where for twenty years he taught at UT’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a founding member of CAST (Capital Area Statues, Inc.) an organization in Austin that commissions monumental works of art as gifts to the city. He is the recipient of the Texas Book Festival’s Texas Writers Award, the Lon Tinkle Award for lifetime achievement from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Texas Medal of Arts award from the Texas Cultural Trust, and has been inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. Stephen Harrigan and his wife Sue Ellen live in Austin and have three daughters and six grandchildren.
Jay Kleberg is an Austin-based conservationist whose family owns the sprawling King Ranch in Kingsville. Kleberg formerly served as associate director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, the nonprofit partner of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. More recently, he has worked as a producer for film “Deep in the Heart,” -- a “Planet Earth” for Texas that features Texan actor Matthew McConaughey as the narrator. Kleberg also serves as co-founder of Explore Ranches, a company that specializes in upscale ranch rentals across the state.
Eugene Lee is a celebrated actor of stage and screen who started acting in the 1970's. Lee's television credits include “Homeland” (SHO); “Dallas” (TNT); “Good Times” (CBS); “The White Shadow” (CBS); “The District” (CBS); “NYPD Blue” (ABC); “The Guiding Light” (NBC); “Quantum Leap” (NBC); “American Crime” (ABC); “The Lying Game” (Freeform); and “MacGyver” (CBS).
He has also appeared on stages across the country and globe. His credits include works at renowned The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. of New York; True Colors Theatre in Atlanta; Huntington Theatre Company in Boston; Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company; Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; Goodman Theatre in Chicago; and the Pittsburgh Public Theater and Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey.
He is Artist in Residence and Director of the American Playwright’s
Conference at Texas State University, also designated as Distinguished Alumnus.
Jack Martin is an entrepreneur, businessman, and rancher. He previously served as the global executive chairman and chief executive officer of Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a global public relations consultancy, and as a Democratic consultant.
Martin is a former chairman of the Texas State University System Board of Regents and has served on the LBJ Foundation's board of trustees. The foundation supports the LBJ Presidential Library and LBJ School of Public Affairs. Jack Martin also served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Baylor Scott and White hospital system. Martin is also a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame.
Location: Austin
Sherry Matthews is a marketing executive, author and founder / CEO of the Sherry Matthews Group, a prominent public-service advertising agency. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, her firm specializes exclusively in public awareness, education, and social change campaigns rather than commercial product marketing. They have produced high-impact regional and national public service announcements including extensive work for the Texas Department of Transportation addressing drunk driving prevention, occupant protection, and aggressive driving.
Location: San Antonio
McDermott is a visionary leader with more than 30 years of experience in the cultural arts and museums. She had a twenty-year tenure as President & CEO of the Witte Museum, where she led a remarkable $120 million transformation that expanded galleries, archives, and research centers and helped spark a thriving cultural renaissance along San Antonio’s Broadway Cultural Corridor. Under her leadership, millions of visitors engaged with state-of-the-art exhibitions, multidisciplinary programming, and immersive experiences rooted in the stories of land, sky, water, and the deep history of Texas.
Beyond the Witte, she has shaped national museum standards as Chair of the Accreditation Commission of the American Alliance of Museums. Her experience includes a blend of scholarship, storytelling, fundraising excellence, and community building. McDermott has published and overseen numerous award-winning books, and advanced public humanities through decades of exhibitions, symposia, and cultural collaborations. McDermott was named Texas State University Liberal Arts Alumni in 2016, where she earned her Masters in Fine Arts in 1996.
William Bennett Meredith is community developer who has spent the past 20 years living and working around “The Main Street of Texas”: Congress Avenue in Austin. Will’s work in the built environment has been on the modern frontier of sustainable community development at the intersection of natural resources, cultural institutions, and economic growth; and he continues to endeavor to build projects that celebrate local communities and their authentic “sense of place.”
Currently Will is active on development projects in Austin and San Antonio and serves on the Texas Board for The Nature Conservancy. Additionally, Will serves as a Trustee for UC Santa Barbara, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science and was in the nationally ranked Men’s Soccer Program. Will’s wife, Natalie, proudly earned her bachelors and M.ED degrees (Teacher Fellows Program) from Texas State University. They live in Austin and have three young children.
Location: Austin
Thomas Queen has been recognized by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in Corporate / M&A (Austin). Thomas has also been recognized on numerous occasions by Best Lawyers in America® as Austin’s Lawyer of the Year for Mergers and Acquisitions and Austin’s Lawyer of the Year for Corporate Law. Thomas has also been listed in Super Lawyers® (a Thompson Reuters service) for over two decades. He is active in the Austin community, with particular focus on educational issues, including a ten-year term on the Board of Directors of KIPP Austin Public Schools and service on the Board of Directors of Austin Achieve Public Schools and the Board of Trustees of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.
Location: San Antonio
Al Rendon’s photographs are part of the Wittliff Collection. Rendon’s 50 years
of photographic work focuses on rock bands, Conjunto and Tejano, including
award-winning photographs of Selena, Charreada riders, and ordinary people. He
is also a top-notch fundraiser.
Location:
Carter Smith formerly served for fifteen years as the Executive Director of the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and the Texas State Director for
The Nature Conservancy, where he led the Texas team in protecting important
habitats in areas like the Devils River, the Edwards Aquifer, the Laguna Madre,
and the Davis Mountains.
Location: San Antonio
Dr. Carmen Tafolla is a poet, storyteller, performance artist, motivational speaker, and university professor – loved throughout the world for her moving performances and poetry readings. The author of more than 30 books, her work appears internationally in high school and university textbooks, newspapers, journals and magazines, and elementary school readers. Carmen was named Poet Laureate of Texas in 2015, and she is the immediate past president of the Texas Institute of Letters. Carmen also served from 2012-2014 as the first Poet Laureate of San Antonio and presented at more than 300 schools, universities, professional conferences, and community arts centers in her two-year tenure. She has received numerous awards, including the Americas Award, five International Latino Book Awards, two Tomas Rivera Book Awards, three ALA Notable Books, a Charlotte Zolotow Award, the Art of Peace Award, and Top Ten Books for Babies. She has been recognized by the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies for work which “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land.”
Location: Austin
James S. Taylor has an enduring love of and appreciation for Mexico—the result of his upbringing in that country. Born in the Texas panhandle and raised in Tamaulipas, James’ bi-cultural background and bi-national experience have infused his career, personal interests, and community endeavors.
An underlying purpose of James’ multi-faceted career has been to deepen connections and knowledge between the U.S. and Mexico in business, the arts, and politics. He graduated from Texas State University with a degree in international studies and began pursuit of opportunities that help bridge a better understanding of the two neighboring countries. Taylor received the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2017.
James is a co-founder of Vianovo, an international strategic advisory consultancy, and of Grupo Compadres, a company that produces and markets SUSTO Mezcal, a new brand of Mexico’s oldest agave spirit.
James is a member of the advisory board of the Texas Book Festival and serves as honorary consul of Spain in Austin, Texas. James and his wife Ingrid have two children, Benjamin and Gabriela.
Location: Houston
Ellen Weingarten Wagnon, a second generation Texan and Houstonian, is a former public relations and marketing professional, with over two decades of experience representing a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to local and regional non-profit organizations. She has experience in creating and implementing multi-platform communications campaigns, developing branding and marketing strategies, and extensive event planning and execution, including everything from large-scale public events to private launches and celebrations. Having worked as both a professional executive and as a volunteer for numerous charitable boards and committees, she possesses a unique perspective on the business of non-profit organizations, from operations to fund development to program fulfillment. She and her husband, Robert, live in Houston and have three adult sons.
Location: Austin
Reid Wittliff, a partner in the Austin-based law firm, Wittliff Cutter PLLC, is a technology lawyer with a deep understanding of the fast-developing law governing online activity, privacy, and data security. He has represented both fortune 100 companies and small start-ups in technology and intellectual property disputes. As a certified mediator, he also frequently negotiates and drafts software licenses and other technology contracts. Reid’s prior experience includes serving as the founding Division Chief of the Texas Attorney General Office’s Computer Crime Division and as a federal prosecutor responsible for leading computer crime investigations and prosecutions in the Dallas, Texas area. In 2008, Reid founded R3 Digital Forensics, LLC as an independent company to provide digital forensics and e-Discovery services to clients throughout the nation. He holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law.
Location: Austin
Sally Wittliff is an Austin attorney with a general practice. Born in New York City, she spent most of her childhood in Washington, D.C. Sally moved to San Antonio during her high school years, and has been in Texas ever since. She is a member of Inns of Court and a fellow of the Texas State Bar and Austin Bar Foundations. She is a former secondary mathematics teacher, chair of the City of Austin Urban Transportation Commission, president of We Care Austin, and board member of many civic organizations, including KLRU Public Television, Safe Place, and the Contemporary Austin. Cofounder with her husband, Bill, of Austin’s Encino Press and The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, Sally is also the business manager of Pangaea, Inc., an Austin film production company, and of Wittliff Properties. Sally and Bill have two grown children and four grandchildren.
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