L-R: Town Lake Links Members Lisa Newman, Freda Mills and Anje Watkins Town Lake (TX) Chapter Member Freda Mills won the Unsung Hero Award at the Austin Independent School District’s 35th Annual African-American Heritage Celebration. The honor recognized her 29 years of dedicated service to disadvantaged students. Mills is a graduate of California State University Long Beach, Pepperdine University, Cal-Poly Pomona and the University of Texas at Austin. She began her career in education in 1989 as a teacher in the Los Angeles and Pomona Unified School Districts. Most recently, she served as principal of Mary Jane Sims Early College Preparatory for 12 years and principal of Pleasant Hill Elementary [...]

The Town Lake Chapter's NSBE Jr. team at the First Lego League competition The Town Lake (TX) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated’s National Society of Black Engineers Jr. robotics team won 1st place (among 27 teams) in the Core Values area at the First Lego League competition on Saturday, Feb. 3rd. The team also qualified for regionals and performed well in the Project Presentation and Robot Design Executive Summary categories.  The team is now busy preparing for The Central Texas Regional Competition to be held in Austin on March 3rd. Special thanks to our community coaches Spencer Reuter and Ronald Bell and all of the Town Lake Chapter Members who [...]

Dr. Daina Berry, a Town Lake (TX) Chapter member, shines a light on the cadaver trade underpinning 19th-century medical education in a New York Times OpEd published this month. “The topic of slavery features prominently in each February’s reflections on African-American history,” she writes. “But when it comes to this darkest time in our country’s past, experts are still discovering horrors that have not yet made their way into history books. One shocking fact that’s recently come to light: Major medical schools used slave corpses, acquired through an underground market in dead bodies, for education and research.” Read the full OpEd here.

Maya Smart at Austin’s New Central Library. Town Lake (TX) Chapter Member Maya Smart was named one of Tribeza magazines’ People of the Year. “When it comes to community involvement, Maya Payne Smart is in deep,” says Tribeza writer Nicole Beckley. “Since moving to Austin in the spring of 2015, she’s joined the boards of the Library Foundation, the Texas Book Festival, Montessori For All, and St. David’s Foundation; chaired the UT Libraries Advisory Council; and served on the advisory council for the Fearless Leadership Institute, a mentoring program for undergraduate women of color at UT. Not to mention her other volunteer commitments, like working with toddlers at the YMCA’s [...]

NSBE Jr. Chapter tours the Red Bud Center. The Town Lake (TX) Chapter partnered with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) to coordinate a tour of the Red Bud Center for the NSBE Jr. Chapter.  The 5th – 8th grade students learned about the about the human water cycle and gained hands-on hydrodynamics experience.  The students learned how LCRA manages the river and why it's important to conserve and protect our region’s main water supply.  

Town Lake Chapter member Machree Gibson received the Austin Area Urban League’s distinguished Whitney M. Young Jr. Award at its 2017 Equal Opportunity Day Gala. Mr. Young was the executive director of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971 and focused on gaining equality for black people in business and politics and on improving communities for the urban poor. The organization commended Gibson for her work advocating for equal opportunity.   Gibson is a lobbyist and attorney with The Graydon Group and represents a broad range of clients, including corporations, trade associations, governmental entities and other organizations in legislative and administrative matters before the Texas Legislature and various state agencies. She [...]

Congratulations to Town Lake Chapter member Keffrelyn Brown and the other members of the Leadership Austin Class of 2018. The distinguished group of community leaders represents diverse spheres of interest and influence. Through participation in the flagship program of Leadership Austin, they will meet monthly around the city to explore regional issues, hone leadership skills, forge new relationships and improve our community. Dr. Brown is a UT professor and leading scholar of the intersections of teaching, curriculum and race. Her academic research, community involvement and personal practice all exemplify whole-hearted, relationship-centered and evidence-based leadership. Known for deep subject-matter expertise and eagerness to share it at the grassroots level, Dr. Brown invites others to [...]

The Town Lake (TX) Chapter was honored at The Links, Incorporated’s Western Area Conference in Denver, Colorado for its new website design, STEM educational initiative and I Know I Can Program.   The Town Lake (TX) Chapter earned the Best of Web Award for the new chapter website.  The Technology Committee migrated to a new web application platform and revamped the website design based on feedback from the chapter. The Town Lake (TX) Chapter received the 3rd place award for the STEM Educational Initiative.  The Links Incorporated established a partnership with NSBE to charter a local Chapter “Town Lake (Austin, TX) – a Links-NSBE Jr. Chapter” to Increase the number of culturally [...]