Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care Board

I am the Director of Family Services at Panhandle Community Services. I aspire to be a dynamic and innovative leader who equips my team with the tools they need to battle poverty daily with fierce resolve. Panhandle Community Services works diligently across the 26 Counties of the Texas Panhandle to ensure families succeed and reach their full potential. At this time, the programs under my direction are a Housing Choice Voucher program (including VASH & FYI), Family Development, Career Coaching (which has an employer component), a Housing Stability program, and five hygiene closets operating across our service area. In late May of this year, the Panhandle faced three natural disasters in basically two weeks. My team worked tirelessly and continues to help with disaster recovery, which has been a whole new endeavor for my team, PCS, and me! Here is part of my story that is important, probably critical… I experienced an unplanned pregnancy in high school. My parents sent me to a maternity home in Lubbock, Texas. I gave birth to my son Matthew who I did not place for adoption. I brought him home and started high school again as a teen mother, juggling parenting and school. My parents were supportive but clear that they would not raise my child; I would! I completed high school and even have graduation pictures holding Matthew. Then I began college at West Texas A&M University. I commuted for the first 3 years of college from my hometown; each way was slightly over an hour’s drive. As I progressed in college, daycare barriers and other factors started to creep in. It became necessary for Matthew to commute with me. He didn’t realize this wasn’t normal and he didn’t know that most kids didn’t get dressed or eat breakfast in the car. It is what we did, every morning.

Because of an opportunity through Panhandle Community Services and a program that existed in the late 90s called FIT (families in training), I was able to move to Amarillo and be closer to my school, childcare, and greater opportunities. It was absolutely life-changing. I’m incredibly proud and humbled that my journey has come full circle – Now I am able to serve, offer training, perspective and skills to my team which further facilitates this same type of life-changing hope and help in the communities we serve across the panhandle.

Just a peek into my family life now, I am part of a fantastically blended family with a whole lot of heart. I have been married to my husband Don for nearly 10 years. Together we have 3 grown children and 5 grandchildren in various stages of life, ranging from pre-k to newly married!

Other important layers to what makes… Well, me! I believe that everyone should have someone to be their cheerleader and someone who makes them feel safe, no matter what. I like authenticity, and I enjoy connecting with people and doing life with them. I am pretty blunt and honest, but I try to temper that with humor. I love a good redemption story, and throughout my life, one of my most significant observations is that most people are more resilient than they know.