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Board of Directors
Experts in their fields and passionate about educational equity, the KIPP Texas Board of Directors provide trusted governance and oversee our work. The members are highly engaged and actively committed to improving public education across the state of Texas.
Gene Austin
Gene is a Fortune 500 technology veteran, with more than two decades of experience leading growth of young companies, as well as major business units at global corporations. Gene is formerly the CEO of Quorum and previously worked at BazaarVoice and Blackbaud, Inc. Prior to joining Blackbaud in May 2012, Gene was the driving force behind Convio’s strong growth since July 2003. Previously, Gene served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Careerbuilder.com, where he contributed significantly to growth leading to a 1999 public offering. After CareerBuilder.com, Gene worked at Dell as Vice President and General Manager of Internet Servers, and, just prior to Convio, as BMC Software’s Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Data Management.
Gene has been an active member of the Austin Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. Gene is also active on the Board of the Austin Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International and the Texas Institute for Education Reform Board of Directors. Gene has an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and a BS in Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Bill Boyar
Bill Boyar is a founding shareholder of the Houston-based law firm BoyarMiller. His practice focuses on the acquisition, disposition, capitalization, and financing of assets and businesses, with extensive experience in corporate finance, healthcare, energy, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, and hospitality. A former columnist for the Houston Business Journal, Bill chaired BoyarMiller from 1990 to 2010.
Today, he continues his legal practice, mentors business leaders, and actively serves the Houston community. He currently serves on the boards of KIPP Texas Public Schools, the KIPP Texas Future Fund, and Combined Arms. His past service includes the Houston Food Bank, the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, SEARCH for Homeless Services, the End Hunger Network, the American Leadership Forum, the University of Houston Bauer College of Business Graduate Real Estate Program, Lochinvar Golf Club, and The Renaissance Club of Scotland.
Paul Doll
Mr. Doll brings more than 40 years of energy industry experience and strong financial and accounting leadership. Mr. Doll retired in February, 2025 after the sale of Medallion Midstream to Oneok. Prior to that, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Medallion and was also one of the original partners. In that role, Mr. Doll was responsible for overseeing all accounting, finance and administration activities of the company as well as serving on the Company Board.
From September 2007 until joining Medallion, Mr. Doll served as Vice President, Finance with Laser Midstream Energy, LP, where he was responsible for overseeing all of Laser’s financial activities including accounting, finance, credit, risk management, analysis and administration. While at Laser, Mr. Doll successfully arranged a $105 million senior secured credit facility and was instrumental in the negotiations and development of a $150 million pipeline project in the Marcellus Shale.
Prior to joining Laser, Mr. Doll held the title of Western Hemisphere Controller for Hanover Compressor Company, where he was responsible for oversight of worldwide manufacturing accounting as well as finance and accounting activities for the North and South American compressor rental division.
Before joining Hanover Compressor Company, Mr. Doll held a variety of financial, accounting, business development and management roles with Hanover Measurement Services, Texas Southeastern Gas Company and Houston Pipeline Company. Mr. Doll is currently active on several advisory Boards. He is currently the Chairman of the KIPP-DFW Board. KIPP-DFW is a charter school system that serves underprivileged children in South Dallas. Additionally, Mr. Doll has served as an Advisory Board member for Enterprise Fleet Management since 2018.
Amy Gurley
Keith Hennington
Keith Hennington served as the Chief Financial Officer of Maverick Capital, an investment management firm. He joined Maverick Capital as Tax Director in 1993 and served in that role until 2006. He is also on the Board of Directors of Maverick Capital Foundation (MCF). MCF mission is to aid organizations that focus on ending the cycle of poverty and has been a supporter of KIPP for several years in both Dallas and New York.
From 1987 until joining Maverick in 1993, Keith served as a Tax Manager for Ernst & Young in Dallas. He received a B.B.A. in Accounting and Information Systems and an M.S. in Taxation from Baylor University.
Keith is married to Keeley and has two daughters (Jordan and Paige).
Beth Huddleston
Beth Huddleston is a General Partner and Co-Founder at H+M Advisory Group, a consultancy focused on early-stage companies. Prior to founding H+M, Beth was General Manager at Uber. There, she drove the P&L for a $650M business in Texas and Missouri. During her tenure, she grew the market by 250% through consumer and driver marketing; improved operations; strategic partnerships; community engagement; and regulatory efforts.
Before moving to Dallas, Beth honed her strategic and advisory skills at McKinsey and Company. There, she led teams to develop fact-based solutions to strategic and operational problems.
Originally from Atlanta, Beth earned her B.B.A. with High Distinction from Emory University. She received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where she was awarded a Social Enterprise Fellowship for her work on women’s health issues.
Ivan Jaime
Ivan has spent more than 20 years turning complexity into coherence — helping large organizations and public officials find common ground in politically sensitive, highly regulated environments. He currently leads public affairs and government relations for Walmart across Texas and Oklahoma, two of the company’s most dynamic and complex markets. His approach is straightforward: align people, priorities, and purpose. Whether it’s advancing legislation that strengthens business competitiveness while protecting public interests, or partnering with cities to permit new facilities, Ivan builds coalitions that produce results greater than the sum of its parts.
Colleagues and policymakers alike know Ivan for his strategic clarity, calm under pressure, and genuine collaborative spirit — someone who takes the work seriously and still manages to be good company along the way. He builds and maintains relationships grounded in transparency, trust, and mutual gain — values that legislators, community leaders, and other public stakeholders expect out of their private sector partners.
Ivan holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science in Communication from Northwestern University. He lives in San Antonio with his wife, three children, and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
Ivan has spent more than 20 years turning complexity into coherence — helping large organizations and public officials find common ground in politically sensitive, highly regulated environments. He currently leads public affairs and government relations for Walmart across Texas and Oklahoma, two of the company’s most dynamic and complex markets. His approach is straightforward: align people, priorities, and purpose. Whether it’s advancing legislation that strengthens business competitiveness while protecting public interests, or partnering with cities to permit new facilities, Ivan builds coalitions that produce results greater than the sum of its parts.
Colleagues and policymakers alike know Ivan for his strategic clarity, calm under pressure, and genuine collaborative spirit — someone who takes the work seriously and still manages to be good company along the way. He builds and maintains relationships grounded in transparency, trust, and mutual gain — values that legislators, community leaders, and other public stakeholders expect out of their private sector partners.
Ivan holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science in Communication from Northwestern University. He lives in San Antonio with his wife, three children, and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
Tim Kopra
Tim Kopra is a senior business leader, former astronaut, and career military officer. He currently serves as the Chief Human Exploration Officer at Voyager Technologies, having previously led Starlab Space, Nanoracks, OneWeb Technologies, and MDA Space’s robotics division. He was also a partner at Blue Bear Capital.
During his NASA career, Kopra logged 244 days in space, completing two spaceflights and three spacewalks as an engineer and International Space Station Commander. His military service includes deploying to Operation Desert Storm, commanding an AH-64 Attack Helicopter Company, and serving as an experimental test pilot.
Kopra serves on the boards of KIPP Texas and the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. He holds degrees from the U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Army War College, Georgia Tech, Columbia Business School, and London Business School, and is a graduate of the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School.
Tim Kopra is a senior business leader, former astronaut, and career military officer. He currently serves as the Chief Human Exploration Officer at Voyager Technologies, having previously led Starlab Space, Nanoracks, OneWeb Technologies, and MDA Space’s robotics division. He was also a partner at Blue Bear Capital.
During his NASA career, Kopra logged 244 days in space, completing two spaceflights and three spacewalks as an engineer and International Space Station Commander. His military service includes deploying to Operation Desert Storm, commanding an AH-64 Attack Helicopter Company, and serving as an experimental test pilot.
Kopra serves on the boards of KIPP Texas and the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. He holds degrees from the U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Army War College, Georgia Tech, Columbia Business School, and London Business School, and is a graduate of the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School.
Dolores Lozano
Dolores Lozano made history in November 2022 as the first woman and minority elected to serve as Harris County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 2, Place 2, representing communities across the Greater Southeast Houston region.
Born and raised in Southeast Houston and a proud first-generation college graduate of Baylor University, Dolores built her early career in speech pathology, serving children in underserved communities before transitioning into sports and entertainment, where she contributed to marquee events including Super Bowl LI, NCAA Final Four tournaments, and NBA All-Star games. In 2018, she co-launched Impact Hub Houston, an organization focused on addressing systemic inequities through innovative community-driven solutions.
As Justice of the Peace, Dolores presides over eviction, small claims, traffic, and truancy cases with a commitment to dignity and access. In 2024, her Eviction Diversion Initiative — a program connecting landlords and tenants with resources to resolve disputes and prevent homelessness — earned both the Texas Association of Counties Best Practice Award and the Texas Housers Award.
Beyond the bench, Dolores serves as Secretary of the KIPP Texas Board of Directors and remains active in the Junior League of Houston. She is a fellow of the Aspen Institute Ideas Scholars, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and Latinos for Education programs.
Dolores Lozano made history in November 2022 as the first woman and minority elected to serve as Harris County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 2, Place 2, representing communities across the Greater Southeast Houston region.
Born and raised in Southeast Houston and a proud first-generation college graduate of Baylor University, Dolores built her early career in speech pathology, serving children in underserved communities before transitioning into sports and entertainment, where she contributed to marquee events including Super Bowl LI, NCAA Final Four tournaments, and NBA All-Star games. In 2018, she co-launched Impact Hub Houston, an organization focused on addressing systemic inequities through innovative community-driven solutions.
As Justice of the Peace, Dolores presides over eviction, small claims, traffic, and truancy cases with a commitment to dignity and access. In 2024, her Eviction Diversion Initiative — a program connecting landlords and tenants with resources to resolve disputes and prevent homelessness — earned both the Texas Association of Counties Best Practice Award and the Texas Housers Award.
Beyond the bench, Dolores serves as Secretary of the KIPP Texas Board of Directors and remains active in the Junior League of Houston. She is a fellow of the Aspen Institute Ideas Scholars, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and Latinos for Education programs.
Ethan Phillips
Ethan Phillips is a partner with Bain & Company in the Houston office. He is a member of the Global Oil & Gas Practice and has deep expertise in upstream operations and organizational transformations.
He joined the company as a consultant in the Boston office in 2004 and served in the Dallas office from 2005‐2009 before moving to Houston to open the Bain Houston office.
While at Bain, Ethan has advised clients in a wide range of capabilities including growth strategy, organizational effectiveness, performance improvement and change management. In addition to Oil & Gas, he has also worked with the private equity, education, health care, telecommunications, and airline industries.
Prior to joining Bain, Ethan had several years experience as an entrepreneur, founding and growing two companies in his hometown of Austin, Texas. Ethan holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and an AB in Economics from Harvard University. He lives in Houston with his wife and four children.
Patricia Ponton
Patricia Ponton has over 20 years’ experience working in the Oils and Gas Industry and has held various leadership positions in the Risk, Governance, Compliance and Financial Management of major assets with Shell Oil Company, Motiva Enterprise and currently Marathon Petroleum. In her current capacity as Assistant Controller, she heads an organization that ensures the financial accuracy and disclosures of Marathon’s commodity trading business. Her organization also ensures that the commodity trading operation is conducted in accordance with the Company’s risk profile, legal and external regulatory requirements. Prior to Marathon Petroleum, Patricia worked with Shell Oil Company in varying Finance roles, to include leading the multi-billion-dollar Refining divestiture of Motiva Enterprise, a 19-year joint venture between Shell Oil Company and Saudi Aramco. She was also Head of Finance at Motiva Convent Refinery whose organization partnered with Operation leadership to significantly improve the profitability of the Refinery.
Patricia graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS Degree in Economics from the Rolla-Missouri University of Science and Technology, was the recipient of the Sloan and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Public Policy from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and holds an MBA from Saint Louis University, Saint Louis.
Patricia spent 4 years as an enlisted member of the United States Army that, through its College Fund Program, enabled her accomplishments. She is also a member of Culturingua’s Board of Directors/Finance, Investment Committee Chair and was the Treasury of Jack and Jill of America – Humble/Kingwood Chapter.
Shana Ravnsborg
Shana Ravnsborg is the Senior Director of Capability Development & Operations at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her team provides comprehensive organizational and planning capabilities to drive transformational change across the curriculum development teams. Shana is passionate about education as an agent of change in the lives of millions of students and instrumental in translating a vision of more inclusive, culturally responsive materials into the skills and processes within HMH. Shana and her team embody the HMH value of “Learning” by illustrating the importance of intellectual curiosity, empathy, and openness for all of HMH.
Shana has a BA in Economics from Bryn Mawr College and an MBA in Operations and Information Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as Chair of the KIPP Texas-Austin Regional Board and co-head of the Bryn Mawr in Austin alumni group. At home, she can be found trying new recipes to feed her teenage sons or knitting clothes they will outgrow before she finishes.
Shawn Raymond
Shawn Raymond is a trial lawyer whose practice concentrates on heavyweight commercial litigation of all types. His clients describe him as “a passionate advocate,” “a skilled tactician,” and “meticulous in his preparation.”
Named The Best Lawyers in America 2015 Litigation ‐ Antitrust “Lawyer of the Year” in Houston.
Ranked as one of the top 100 lawyers in the Houston Region on the 2014 and 2015 Texas Super Lawyers List (presented by Thomson Reuters and the publishers of Texas Monthly).
Included in the 2012‐2016 editions of The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.).
Featured in either in Benchmark Plaintiffs: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Plaintiff Firms and Attorneys or in Benchmark Litigation as a Future Star (2014‐2016).
Past President of the Federal Bar Association’s Southern District of Texas Chapter, which serves the federal judiciary and federal practitioners in all seven divisions of the District.
Named to the Houston Business Journal’s 2011 “40 Under 40” list for being among Houston’s next 40 leaders who excel in their industry, are respected business leaders, and show dynamic leadership in their community.
Recipient of the 2009 Woodrow B. Seals Outstanding Young Lawyer Award. Named in honor of a well-known federal judge, this award is given annually to one Houston attorney under the age of 38 who best represents professional excellence and service to clients, the community and the Bar.
Shawn attended George Washington University where he graduated magna cum laude. He received his JD from the University of Texas School of Law.
Alex Sharma
Alex Nila K. Sharma is a native of Massachusetts but has been a Dallas area resident of and on for more than 30 years. He earned his B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Southern Methodist University and a JD from the University of Texas at Austin. He also earned an LLM in International Law from Southern Methodist University. His early work experience was with the State Attorney General’s office in Austin.
After several years Alex left the legal profession and began a career in real estate development. Primarily working in the Pacific Northwest for the past two decades Alex and one partner have built projects opportunistically, including offices, condominiums, and currently a second home resort development in Central Washington state.
Alex and his family are deeply committed to child welfare and children’s issues locally and all over the globe. The Family has given their time and energy to UNICEF for more than a decade. Alex is currently the Board Vice‐Chair for Family Gateway, an organization that assists homeless children and families in the Dallas area. He is also the current Board Chair of KIPP DFW Public Charter schools, which currently serve more than 2,400 disadvantaged children in Southern Dallas.
Alex and his wife Gowri have one high school aged daughter.
Allison Thacker
Allison K. Thacker joined Rice University in 2011 as President of the Rice Management Company with the responsibility of managing a $5.6 billion endowment fund and the University’s $968 million of debt. The Rice University endowment ranks in the top 20 endowments of private research universities in the US and funds
over 40% of the university budget. Over the 3, 5 and 10 years ending June 30, 2015, annualized endowment returns were 11.9%, 12.2% and 8.6%. Rice Management Company partners with third party investment managers and also internally manages a portfolio of direct real estate, oil and gas royalties, timberland and operating businesses.
Prior to joining Rice University, Ms. Thacker spent 11 years with RS Investments, a San Francisco‐based investment firm specializing in public equities. At RS Investments, Ms. Thacker held roles including Portfolio Manager, Managing Director and Research Analyst. In the earlier portion of her career, Ms. Thacker served
as a Summer Analyst at Putnam Investments and as a Financial Analyst in the energy investment banking group at Merrill Lynch & Co. She was a founding board member of KIPP Heartwood Academy, a college preparatory charter school serving East San Jose, California, is currently the board chair of the KIPP Texas Houston Regional board, a member of the Houston Ballet Board of Trustees, a board member for Black
Stone Minerals, and Chairman of the Board of Accelerate Learning.
Ms. Thacker is a graduate of Harvard Business School where she received an M.B.A. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with honors from Rice University.
Darla Whitaker
Darla Whitaker is a senior vice president of Texas Instruments responsible for human resources.
Prior to this role, she served as vice president and manager of TI’s compensation and human resources systems and services. Throughout her career at TI, she has held various leadership positions in human resources, including director of human resources for the Application‐Specific Products organization, human resources manager for the Application‐Specific Integrated Circuit organization and compensation manager for the Asia region. Prior to her experience in human resources, she served in a variety of manufacturing and engineering roles.
Whitaker joined TI in 1984 in the wafer fabrication facility in Sherman, Texas. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. She also earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Dallas.
In addition to her role at TI, she serves on the board of directors for the TI Foundation, TI’s Political Action Committee and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) DFW. She is also an alumnus of Leadership Texas.